So I like games.

Like a lot. More than most teachers I assume, although the more I interact online, the more I’m finding that being a ‘young tech-focused teacher’ is also its own little niche.

I used a lot of N64 and Gamecube growing up, but ever since my own middle school days, I’ve been in a fairly monogamous relationship with PCs. LAN parties are still among my favorite memories of high school. I think I’ll always chase the high that the thousand-odd hours of World of Warcraft gave me.

Anyways, teachers always bring a part of themselves into their classroom, so this blog post will be focused on how these formative experiences affect the day-to-day in my classroom.

What is Gamification?

To me, and in an ideal world:
Gamification at its heart is a study of motivation. Game designers must find a way to convince players to sit in front of their computer (or Xbox or Board Game or whatever) for the hours and occasions necessary to complete the game. They need to convince players that they are having fun, and (ideally) to spread their enjoyment of the game to others. This is how you sell more of a game!

In a classroom, I feel like Gamification tends to fall into two categories.

One: utilizing existing games to educate. For example, there are a ton of educational video games, or simply video games that could be used for education. More are being created everyday by people much more talented than individual teachers.

Two: making your lessons more engaging through the same tricks of psychology and motivation that game designers use.

Why do I want to use this tool?

I think gamification has an untapped efficiency for education. I think about how addicted I’ve been to various games throughout my life: Magic the Gathering, Civilization V, and of course, World of Warcraft, and I can’t help but feel like there’s so much potential there. At various points in my time, I’ve had veritable encyclopedias of lore and strategies related to various games memorized. How cool would it be if I could get students to learn the history of the US as vividly as I once knew the flavor text on entire sets of Magic the Gathering Cards.

Finally, classroom management is always easier if the students are having fun.

How do I currently do it in my room?

Some of the best gamification from my room might be…

• Westward Expansion Roleplay in 8th Grade (think, the Oregon Trail, but played as a class).
• Using Battle Cry (the board game) to get students interested in the Civil War in 8th Grade.
• Using our class Oculus Rift to broach discussions on modern-racism as it relates to our Antebellum South unit.
• The Pirate Game that we use to explore the New World at the end of 7th Grade. (shout out to John of the Museum School!)

I had a lot of success at the start of last year motivating students to do an otherwise fairly dry Math program by letting them basically play a slot machine each time they completed a level. Gambling, it turns out, is another great example of gamification. What better testament to motivation can there be than people losing so much money in Vegas?

Future Goals?

My immediate goal is to create a series of flashcards that I can get students to collect like I used to collect Magic the Gathering Cards. I envision releasing booster packs weekly which students can use to improve their decks. Maybe I’ll have special boosters for different subjects? Right now I’m kind of divided between literally using MTG rules, or making them more loose and playing games like Apples to Apples or Uno using the cards.

The biggest challenge is that I feel like the art-work was an integral part of those cards for me. I suppose I could start collecting illustrated vocabulary this year and having a full set by next year? Another challenge is deciding on what words to use. I think that the weekly or monthly booster-pack idea could be really appealing and fun.

My Top Gamification Resources:

Off the top of my head, I highly recommend Mission US as a supplement for teaching US history to 8th graders. https://www.mission-us.org/

Oh also, I’ve had a ton of success with iCivics for teaching concepts of US Government.