{"id":61,"date":"2024-08-22T18:40:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T18:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speechlynn.com\/blog\/?p=61"},"modified":"2024-09-22T21:55:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T21:55:26","slug":"gamifying-your-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speechlynn.com\/blog\/?p=61","title":{"rendered":"Gamifying Your Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is gamifying and why should you use it in your lessons?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamifying and gamification are terms that have been thrown around in the education industry with increasing frequency over the past decade. It’s a trend I don’t think will be going away any time soon, and I believe we should embrace it while we can. It’s possible you’ve used gamified activities in your own lessons without even realizing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ‘gamify’ something means to add game-like elements to something to encourage participation. I’m sure you’ve heard your students chatting excitedly about their favorite game and all the best ways to play it. It’s that enjoyment and memory that sticks to the student that we want to apply in our own lessons, hence the emergence of games and game elements used as teaching mechanics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m sure you’ve seen some of the more classic examples such as a Star Chart for activity and participation or a Chutes and Ladder printable handout. However, the intent of this article is to focus on examples that align more closely with video games. With the fast-paced nature of media and games these days, your classic tabletop game might not be as alluring as it once was prior to eight second videos taking over your average kid’s attention span. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can attract their attention, however, is the near-universal use of video games. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a>, more than 90 percent of children (in the US) in 2023 play video games. By taking the fight for engagement to the place they associate with a good time, we’re priming ourselves to have attentive students and a better session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamification in its Natural State<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Epistory <\/a>is an example of gamification at its finest. At its core, Epistory serves as a game to practice typing. In reality, it comes with a riveting story, fun movement and upgrade systems, and mechanics that help keep the game interesting the whole way through. Even after only playing a few sessions I found my typing speed notably increased with the minimal effort and pleasant enjoyment that comes from playing a fun game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am not trying to imply that it is our duty as educators to sink thousands of hours to create video games to teach our students. Instead, we can take some of the elements that make video games both relatable and great teaching devices and put them in our classroom activities. This is something you can do yourself- at the end of your next lesson, ask your student what their favorite game is and then load it up at night. Give it a chance and try to dissect what about it grabs your student’s attention so strongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An easy example we can work on together is Rocket League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At its’ base, Rocket League is car soccer. You drive a car to hit the ball into the opposing team’s goal. There are many different modes, but the most common tends to be 3 cars versus 3 cars. However, just like soccer, there are many advanced techniques, strategies, and components that have their own game-specific lingo. This level of strategy and lingo drives up feelings of being a part of the Rocket League community. As the player gets more skilled over time, they can choose to play the game’s Competitive format which grants them a rank. Their rank increases and decreases as they win and lose matches respectively. It gives players a real way to measure their journey and skill level as they grow as players. There is also a more definite goal: to reach the top rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also competitive leagues and tournaments for Rocket League that serve the winning team several hundred thousand dollars<\/a>, which has spurned entire rosters of players that are paid to solely play Rocket League. French player Andrea ‘Radosin’ Radovanovi\u0107 earned $315,588<\/a> just in 2023<\/em>. There is an established competitive scene where players can choose to watch live and follow just like real sports. While we can’t take things like tournament winnings and competitive leagues at face value to teach our students with, we can take some of the smaller interactions and apply them to our own lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeaways<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious takeaway we can use is theming our worksheets around these games to increase relatability. This can come with the tradeoff of the worksheet losing that cool factor with students if the game becomes obsolete. However, some games like Minecraft have still held strong after a decade. Worksheets like these<\/a> help associate what would otherwise be another boring handout with a game nearly everyone would recognize and provides a concrete, visual objective to be completed. It also helps them move their hands and be physically active as they complete the objective, which helps get excess energy out while still focusing on the activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another takeaway we can bring from Rocket League to the classroom is competition. Earning a ‘rank’ that a student can keep increasing by completing more activities is a great way to recognize good work. A reward system to accompany the rank would help incentivize that further. Individual competitions and activities for several players to play against each other can also help push engagement further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many other facets of Rocket League that you could analyze as well, including the in-game economy, custom mapping, and the other various game modes that span Rocket League’s incredibly diverse portfolio. For the sake of time we’ll call it here, but there are so many other points of interest you can look at and learn from. Games that are information-dense such as Darker and Darker or League of Legends are great future picks. Both are somehow able to smoothly onboard millions of players in a game that requires an extreme level of knowledge to even grasp the basics of. Learning how they do so (and being able to apply that in your own sessions) is another great point to try and crack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next time your lesson wraps up, remember to ask your student what their favorite game is; You might just wind up learning something that helps the both of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is gamifying and why should you use it in your lessons? Gamifying and gamification are terms that have been thrown around in the education industry with increasing frequency over the past decade. 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