tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/gamification-of-education-38658/articlesGamification of Education – The Conversation2021-08-02T02:16:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649432021-08-02T02:16:25Z2021-08-02T02:16:25ZGamers know the power of ‘flow’ — what if learners could harness it too?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413868/original/file-20210729-15-1s5dsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5973%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the constant challenges in education is keeping the learner <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/the-rush-to-online-ness">engaged, motivated and connected</a> in a world increasingly filled with distractions. Social media, streaming TV and video games all compete for students’ increasingly fragmented attention.</p>
<p>COVID-19 lockdowns only increased the opportunity for those distractions to interfere with learning. But, as we look hopefully towards a post-COVID world, perhaps we can take inspiration from the things many students are clearly drawn to — in particular, video games.</p>
<p>Of course, borrowing from video games and their design to inform educational practice isn’t new. Some have talked this up as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280934777_GAMEDUCATION_Using_Gamification_Techniques_to_Engage_Learners_in_Online_Learning">gameducation</a>”, whereby courses are like games with trophies for participation and engagement.</p>
<p>It’s clear learning this way can be fun, but there is another important element of that experience that deserves closer examination — “<a href="https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/">flow</a>”.</p>
<p>Gamers (athletes, too) experience this flow state when totally engaged in the game. Living in the moment and the experience, the activity is effortless and there is no sense of time passing.</p>
<p>Students can also experience flow, and this is when learning is at its most productive. So, the challenge in education is to plan for and achieve that level of engagement. Flow is and always will be the gold standard.</p>
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<img alt="students on a computer screen videoconference" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413871/original/file-20210729-13-17mtny3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Online learning in the age of COVID-19: paying attention to each other or paying attention to the screen?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<h2>Learning as social activity</h2>
<p>Learning has always been a deeply social activity, with the student connected to the institution, as Nietzsche put it, “<a href="http://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/330T/350kPEENietzscheFutureTableCut.pdf">by the ear, as a hearer</a>”.</p>
<p>Schools relied on classrooms full of children learning the same material together, their shared attention helping to reduce distractions during focused moments of teaching.</p>
<p>Over time, various strategies for combating distraction have been developed, including offering students a <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/package/distracted-minds">smorgasbord of learning experiences</a>, or cutting the length of lectures to account for the tyranny of concentration spans.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-student-designed-video-games-made-me-rethink-how-i-teach-history-159310">How student-designed video games made me rethink how I teach history</a>
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<p>But COVID-mandated videoconferencing deprives both students and lecturers, and drains the richness from these social interactions. Furthermore, learning mediated by screens simply amplifies the myriad <a href="https://www.gie.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/GONS5000%20Growing%20Up%20Digital%20Report_FINAL.pdf">distractions available online</a>.</p>
<p>Even with cameras on, we’re not necessarily paying attention to each other, we’re paying attention to the screen.</p>
<p>But maybe this is where the qualities that define video games come into their own. After all, gaming is also a deeply social activity that allows for complex interactions and learning without the physical presence of anything more than a screen.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Among US game on mobile phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413869/original/file-20210729-19-anc1nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Popular online game Among Us: the tasks are actually the distractions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<h2>Harnessing distraction</h2>
<p>Online games have already partly substituted for the things COVID-19 has affected — sports events, concerts and music festivals, parties and weddings.</p>
<p>Take the game <a href="https://innersloth.com/gameAmongUs.php">Among Us</a>, for example, which in September 2020 alone had 200,000 people going online to watch “impostors” try to eliminate “crewmates” from teams before they can complete a set of tasks or identify which players are the impostors.</p>
<p>Within the context of the game, the tasks are actually the distractions that prevent players from focusing on who is really an impostor. It is about observation, memory and insight — a game full of learning opportunities that teaches participants how to control distractions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-can-use-video-games-to-motivate-students-161624">How teachers can use video games to motivate students</a>
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<p>The social cohesion created in the teams of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17404622.2021.1901951">Among Us players</a> offers a template for teachers looking for ways to create engaging digital learning environments. Creating teams, allocating individual tasks that help the team and regularly changing team members all help to engage and stimulate students.</p>
<p>With online teaching making it harder for institutions to control the learning environment, it becomes imperative to making learning activities themselves more engaging in a screen-mediated environment.</p>
<h2>Learning with distraction</h2>
<p>As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “<a href="https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf">the medium is the message</a>”. Understanding how games grab and hold attention can help with the design and implementation of new online learning tools. </p>
<p>Even some politicians are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/oct/22/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ilhan-omar-among-us-twitch-stream-aoc">learning from games</a> and using them to engage with the public. Gamification is also <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cae.21994">enhancing academic research</a> and teaching.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-playful-design-is-transforming-university-education-99503">How playful design is transforming university education</a>
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<p>The key lies in our definition of distraction. Screen learning must involve distracting students towards the things that really matter. In education, as in gaming, we can “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235753782_Courting_risk">court risk</a>” without the fear of failing.</p>
<p>Rather than admonishing learners for not focusing when sitting at desks in school or in front of screens, we should work within our distracted world. We need to play with distraction, work with distraction and learn with distraction.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, distraction may not be the enemy, it could be the gateway to more attentive learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Video gaming is often seen as a distraction for students. So the challenge is to distract students back towards learning – and video games provide the perfect model.Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonEdward Schofield, Reviews Advisor, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonStephen Dobson, Professor and Dean of Education, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1616242021-05-28T19:25:49Z2021-05-28T19:25:49ZHow teachers can use video games to motivate students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402925/original/file-20210526-19-hvew6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C13%2C4335%2C2890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Gamification' introduces points, leaderboards, badges and trophies into a classroom. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you ask your teens to do their homework they’ll find a thousand other things to do. But put them in front of a video game, and they’ll focus on it for hours. How exactly do game designers create this kind of engagement? And what would happen if we applied these principles to teaching?</p>
<p>I am a teacher, a father of teenagers and an occasional video game player myself. I know that university professors decry, with reason, the <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.547.2832&rep=rep1&type=pdf">violence</a> some of these games promote. Others point to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dr_Anthony_Bean/publication/317335670_Video_Game_Addiction_The_Push_To_Pathologize_Video_Games/links/597b84130f7e9b8802879118/Video-Game-Addiction-The-Push-To-Pathologize-Video-Games.pdf">issue of video game addiction</a>.</p>
<p>Yet these criticisms ignore the strengths and potential of the video game world, including its ability to engage young people in complex and challenging tasks.</p>
<p>Watching my teens play video games for hours on end tells me that video game designers understand something that my fellow teachers and I had not!</p>
<p>In my teaching duties, this question has taken on a more concrete form: I wonder if it is possible to make distance learning courses more dynamic by incorporating some elements of video game culture into them.</p>
<h2>The era of gamification</h2>
<p>Others have asked the same question. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammad_AL-Smadi/publication/280934777_GAMEDUCATION_Using_Gamification_Techniques_to_Engage_Learners_in_Online_Learning/links/5655f4bb08ae1ef92979b9c5/GAMEDUCATION-Using-Gamification-Techniques-to-Engage-Learners-in-Online-Learning.pdf">Gamification</a> is an established research area in university pedagogy. In general, it refers to a set of teaching approaches and tools that use both the mechanisms of video games and their ability to stimulate student engagement.</p>
<p>These pedagogical approaches use “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?lr=&id=cdtnAQAAQBAJ">game-based mechanics, esthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote learning and solve problems</a>.” </p>
<p>We might assume that university students are more naturally engaged and passionate about the subject matter to begin with. After all, they each chose their area of study. But my answer to that is: it depends on the course.</p>
<p>When I first started teaching, I taught a course in ethics and professionalism. It was a mandatory course in the engineering program, and far from being a popular one.</p>
<p>To begin with, lecturers assigned to this task, all trained in philosophy, struggled to teach a course in applied ethics targeted to the concrete difficulties of science and engineering professionals (engineers, land surveyors, chemists, agronomists).</p>
<p>The students were resistant to content that seemed too theoretical, even cut off from the reality of their future profession. So what does it take to create an exciting course that engages these students?</p>
<p>I didn’t know much about my students, other than the fact that they belonged to an <a href="https://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Final-Edited-2020-ESA_Essential_facts.pdf">age group (19-23) that regularly plays video games</a>. What if the key to engaging them was hidden in the gaming consoles they spent their evenings with?</p>
<h2>Games as a tool for engagement</h2>
<p>Engagement is a concept that has been present in academic literature for over 70 years. It has become a policy anchor for many educational institutions. Student engagement is associated with several benefits: increased student satisfaction, perseverance and academic performance.</p>
<p>Some researchers use engagement to evaluate instructor performance, or even institutional excellence. Over the years, I have gradually adopted new tools to make the course more interesting, engaging and stimulating, for both students and their teacher.</p>
<h2>Trophies, badges and rewards</h2>
<p>One of these tools has shown itself to be particularly exciting and helped increase my students’ engagement: a system of trophies, badges and rewards inspired by the world of video games.</p>
<p>Designed with the help of the “Centre de services en technologies de l'information et en pédagogie (CSTIP)” at Laval University, the system is presented in the form of an application. The mechanics and style are similar to the “achievements” and “trophies” systems typically found on the two most popular video game consoles (Xbox and PlayStation).</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MUbG69zNr3Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>This reward system encourages behaviours such as active participation, attendance, humour, creativity, helpfulness, team spirit, leadership and curiosity. While our educational institutions promote these behaviours in their rhetoric and policies, in practice, these behaviours are difficult to recognize through traditional assessments and grading systems.</p>
<h2>Completing ‘levels’</h2>
<p>Trophies and achievements are used in video games to reward the player’s efforts, and to track and measure progress. For example, when the player completes a level, discovers a new power or eliminates an enemy, they receive a trophy. These systems also encourage players to explore elements of the game they might otherwise ignore or overlook.</p>
<p>For example, exploring all the nuclear shelters in Fallout, visiting all the brothels in Grand Theft Auto, or buying paintings in Florence and Venice in the Assasin’s Creed universe all require a lot of time, patience and effort. Each of these exploits is rewarded with a trophy or an achievement, depending on the console being used.</p>
<p>The sum of these rewards also allows the players to compare themselves to other players. All of these tasks and mechanics can be transposed into a teaching context: exploring new content, succeeding in a difficult task, actively participating, completing a series of specific tasks and so on. </p>
<p>In order to systematize and categorize the trophies and rewards associated with my students’ engagement, I drew on the following five categories identified in a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammad_AL-Smadi/publication/280934777_GAMEDUCATION_Using_Gamification_Techniques_to_Engage_Learners_in_Online_Learning/links/5655f4bb08ae1ef92979b9c5/GAMEDUCATION-Using-Gamification-Techniques-to-Engage-Learners-in-Online-Learning.pdf">study on the subject</a>:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Express (create, build, embellish)</p></li>
<li><p>Explore (try, experiment, research)</p></li>
<li><p>Compete (excel, succeed, distinguish)</p></li>
<li><p>Collaborate (share, help, cooperate)</p></li>
<li><p>Identify (recognize oneself, know oneself, associate with a group)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When a student demonstrates any of the first four categories of commitment through his or her actions or attitude, they earn a trophy. Each trophy is accompanied by a short note from the teacher congratulating the student on his or her “achievement” with a promise they’ll get bonus marks at the end of the course.</p>
<p>The last category (identify) is presented as a table of leaders and winners in each category. The chart shows students their most successful category of engagement and their profile. There are four profiles in the game: expression profile; explorer profile; competition profile and collaboration profile.</p>
<p>Here are a few examples of trophies. A student who attends 90 per cent of their classes receives the “My body was there” trophy. Students who participate more than 20 times in the discussion board receive the “Forum Addict” trophy.</p>
<p>Some trophies target peer support and team spirit, such as the “Medical Assistance—Medic” trophy. Trophies are obviously provided for academic performance as well, including the “Captain America” trophy (for an A+ grade). My course offers several dozen trophies, badges and rewards. Top students win about 30 of them. And they do this all for a maximum of five bonus marks!</p>
<p>The effort these students are willing to put in for a few trophies is impressive. While the average number of visits to a course site is about 100 per semester, some students make over 1,000 visits to this course site. On discussion boards many students admit to being hooked on winning trophies. Others write to me asking for a list of all the trophies, badges and rewards. Not all of the students strive to win trophies, but the students on the whole are having a little more fun. And so is their teacher!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161624/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean-François Sénéchal ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Watching my teens play video games for hours on end tells me that video game designers understand something that my fellow teachers and I had not!Jean-François Sénéchal, Ph.D. Chargé d'enseignement, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1133352019-04-21T12:46:35Z2019-04-21T12:46:35ZMinecraft can increase problem solving, collaboration and learning - yes, at school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268633/original/file-20190410-2909-gr0yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Minecraft and other games, players are highly receptive to learning embedded in the game scenario. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A video game like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html">Minecraft</a> in schools might trouble some parents. As a <a href="http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=828">Canada research chair in technologies and education</a>, my hope is both parents and educators take the time to learn about how using Minecraft at school could be beneficial. </p>
<p>Firstly, parents and teachers are right to ask questions about video gaming, particularly given sometimes conflicting messages about its impact. Some researchers caution about the possible impacts of child and youth exposure <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215003088">to violence</a> or problems of gaming addiction or <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/09/27/kids-screen-time-effects_a_23543754/">screen saturation</a>, while others say <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=EaD_DQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT16&ots=kjTlBHrAtw&dq=violence%20video%20games%20parents%20worries&lr&hl=fr&pg=PT4#v=onepage&q=violence%20video%20games%20parents%20worries&f=false">fears may be exaggerated</a> and it’s a matter of balance.</p>
<p>Parents’ potential skepticism of Minecraft is understandable, given its immense appeal among youngsters. It is one of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/07/08/here-are-the-five-best-selling-video-games-of-all-time/#460ce5095926">most popular video games of all time</a>, with more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/680124/minecraft-unit-sales-worldwide/">150 million copies sold</a>. </p>
<p>But I’ve learned through my research that many are largely unaware of the enormous educational potential of Minecraft. Many people also don’t know <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/">Minecraft Education Edition</a> was released in the fall of 2016 and this version has been rapidly catching on at schools. </p>
<p>Since 2013, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/minecraft-spawns-classroom-lessons/2013/03/14/717aed66-87b8-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html">American</a> and <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-becomes-a-compulsory-class-for-swedish-school/">Swedish</a> schools have been systematically integrating Minecraft into their schools, and it is being used around the world to <a href="https://education.minecraft.net/lessons/science-in-minecraft/">teach science</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2017/apr/05/public-appetite-for-new-tech-is-shaking-up-governments">urban planning</a> and <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/11/minecraft-can-transform-your-world-language-classroom">foreign languages</a>. Masses of educational applications and experiences using Minecraft are available on <a href="http://www.recitus.qc.ca/node/644">online sites</a> and forums. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268894/original/file-20190411-44794-3zt6cf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creativity, student engagement and collaboration between users are some of the aptitudes known to be developed through gameplay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Montréal, a number of schools joined a contest in which students use Minecraft to reproduce historic sites and events in celebration of the city’s 375th anniversary, called <a href="http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/d787353b-43e3-4342-b537-8c379d9de0fd%7C_0.html">Mission 375</a>. With my team at the University of Montréal, we felt it important to investigate the educational potential of Minecraft in order to provide a deeper understanding of the impacts on young learners.</p>
<h2>Gaming for learning</h2>
<p>So why all the interest in video games? Compelling research exists about the benefits of gaming for learning. Educational technology researchers have found that video games <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00570-6">capture children’s attention and provide particularly favorable conditions for learning</a> and have shown <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/004005990503700304">positive effects on cognitive, affective and psychomotor functioning</a>. </p>
<p>When players are fully engaged in a gaming task, they enter what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/CSIFTP">“flow state,” also known as “the zone,”</a> a state highly conducive to learning. </p>
<p>While becoming deeply engrossed in gaming is sometimes depicited in a negative light or only associated with addiction, in fact this state can be harnessed to support or advance learning goals. For example, in this task-focused state, players are highly receptive to learning embedded in the game scenario. Creativity, student engagement and collaboration between users are just some of the aptitudes that are known to be developed through gameplay. </p>
<p>In addition, video games can help today’s youngsters cope with a future world <a href="https://theconversation.com/testing-literacy-today-requires-more-than-a-pencil-and-paper-114154">requiring more and more digital literacy</a>. In other words, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00098650903505415">they will need 21st century skills</a>.</p>
<h2>Minecraft to teach curriculum</h2>
<p>My team and I adopted an exploratory research design to highlight the main uses of Minecraft in a school setting and to identify any benefits of using Minecraft at school. We developed a program called <a href="http://karsenti.ca/Master_Minecraft_Levels.pdf">Minecraft Master</a> where students had to complete more than 40 different tasks. Tasks were closely linked to the school curriculum; for example, students have to create a navigable map, making use of language, mathematics and spatial design, something we asked them to do with Minecraft. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268895/original/file-20190411-44794-1siwf1c.GIF?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students were encouraged to progress through levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tierry Karsenti</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We formed a partnership with one Montréal school. Participation was open to 118 Grade 3 to 6 students in an after-school program based on computers available. Registration took place during recess, on a first-come-first-served basis and parental consent was compulsory. Most of the students took four blocks of six weeks of Minecraft during the school year (an equivalent of about six months). </p>
<p>With the support of a program facilitator, students worked individually and in teams to digitally build structures such as impressive houses, a soccer stadium, a space ship, a railroad track to the Titanic and the Titanic itself. </p>
<p>Researchers also attended some sessions. We studied the main impacts on learning to investigate how gamified learning interventions may <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10494820.2014.964263">increase student engagement and enhance learning</a>.
We used a combination of data collected from surveys, interviews,
“think aloud” protocols (where students speak their problem-solving strategies out loud), journals, tracking of student progress and digital footprints. Using these various methods allowed substantial data triangulation and validation. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95059-4_12">educational impacts we found were encouraging</a>. The students showed a heightened motivation towards school, stronger computer skills, greater problem-solving skills, expanded reading and writing skills, a development in creativity and autonomy and increased collaboration with classmates. </p>
<p>The results of the studies we conducted confirm that Minecraft has real educational value. Notably, <a href="http://www.karsenti.ca/minecraft/files_files/Minecraft_Research_Reports_Karsenti_2017.pdf">gaming allowed the students to fully engage in activities that were both educational and fun</a>.</p>
<h2>Planned, supported, purposeful</h2>
<p>However, it is important to understand that the use of Minecraft in our context was planned, supported and purposeful. This structure is crucial for a successful educational use of the game. Without such boundaries, students might not want to stop playing and learning advantages could be wasted. </p>
<p>Technologies, games and other “screen-related” activities can be a fun experience for students. But it is important to <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-much-screen-time-linked-to-an-epidemic-of-myopia-among-young-people-111599">balance screen time with other activities</a> that are essential for students’ development such as <a href="https://csepguidelines.ca/children-and-youth-5-17/">physically active play</a>, reading, etc. Both parents and teachers can help students find this balance by working together on some rules about technology use. </p>
<p>Therefore, it is incumbent on both parents and teachers to structure the use of video games such as Minecraft to ensure that they provide students with appropriate support for the use of educational technologies. Such supervision would allow them to fully benefit from the incredible potential of this game.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thierry Karsenti receives funding from Canada Research Chairs.</span></em></p>The supervised, structured and balanced use of Minecraft could allow students to fully benefit from the potential of this game to build skills and increase motivation.Thierry Karsenti, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Technologies and Education, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/970452019-03-26T16:20:26Z2019-03-26T16:20:26ZUniversities: increasingly stressful environments taking psychological toll – here’s what needs to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262151/original/file-20190305-48444-yr7nxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, millions of international students <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow">travel to different countries to study at university</a>. This, together with a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-lost-decade-in-higher-education-funding">lack of public funding</a> for universities, has created an increasingly competitive market in which universities work directly against each other to chase students and the money they bring.</p>
<p>This shift was heralded by the introduction of a whole host of performance indicators across the global higher education sector – which has become increasingly “gamified” with <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2019/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats">points and rankings</a>, and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucas-figures-reveal-winners-and-losers-battle-students">winners and losers</a>. And just as universities play against each other for the “top spots” on league tables, students are also taught to compete to be the most “employable”.</p>
<p>For universities the stakes in the game of the higher education market are high. But for students and academics, the stakes of a life transformed into a competitive game can be highly problematic. </p>
<p>More students are dropping out of university <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-students-are-dropping-out-of-university-because-of-mental-health-problems-75584">because of mental health problems</a>. And the mental health of academics is also suffering more than ever before. One recent survey found that 43% of academic staff exhibited symptoms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-academics-and-students-have-mental-health-problems-than-ever-before-90339">at least one mild mental disorder</a>, with increased workloads, and pressures surrounding the job primarily to blame.</p>
<p>Making knowledge production into a game also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/jun/15/is-competition-driving-innovation-or-damaging-scientific-research">puts academics in competition with each other</a>, as research is being measured mainly by who publishes first and in the “best” journals – which actually slows the progress and <a href="https://theconversation.com/missing-from-the-tuition-fees-debate-student-well-being-and-the-public-benefits-of-higher-education-80921">sharing of knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>A game to be won</h2>
<p>Framing education (and society) as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game">zero-sum game</a> can be directly tracked back to the 19th-century pseudoscience of “Social Darwinism” and the <a href="https://accomplishedcaliforniateachers.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/eugenic-legacy/">eugenics movement</a>. This reflected a view of life as a “gladiatorial struggle”, which has been dominant ever since – <a href="https://ncase.me/trust/">even when disproved by science</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265642/original/file-20190325-36279-2a3olo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tests and exams help to frame education as a competition to be ‘won’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So despite all the evidence which shows the importance of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982206022123?via%3Dihub">working together</a> and <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/birds_do_it_bats_do_it">cooperation</a>, many people still believe that competition is the most efficient way to organise society. </p>
<p>This has led to the idea that education has to be competitive and only the best will win. And in terms of higher education, the myth of competition is perpetuated by a vision of education not as an element of the common good, but as individual, competitive advantage – a ticket to the top.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academics-fear-the-value-of-knowledge-for-its-own-sake-is-diminishing-75341">Academics fear the value of knowledge for its own sake is diminishing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The consequences of gaming</h2>
<p>Student attainment, as measured by student “outcomes” and graduate employment <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/degree/">after university</a>, is now fundamental to university rankings, which in turn influences student recruitment. </p>
<p>To avoid being the “losers” in these games, both students and lecturers are put under an extreme amount of pressure to relentlessly focus on outcomes instead of processes. This in turn impacts on another key factor, student satisfaction, as measured by linear scores in the <a href="https://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a>. </p>
<p>Research has shown that the need to top the scoreboard pushes academics into providing entertainment and services to the “<a href="https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-27/december-2014/new-voices-rise-student-consumerism">students as customers</a>” instead of challenging them to think critically.</p>
<h2>Think about the players</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/global-learning/">research in the field of global higher education</a> has shown me how entrenched this global “game” has become. But <a href="https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/persons/luca-morini/publications/">my research on playful learning</a> has also shown me a possible way out.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.deepfun.com/">Play scholar Bernard DeKoven</a> highlighted two different ways of forming a <a href="http://www.deepfun.com/2009/01/play-and-game-communities.html">community around any game</a>: “game community” and “play community”. The game community is all about winning: the game comes first, it is unchangeable, and decides who is a worthy player and who is cast out. This is what we are seeing now, both in education and in society as a whole. The play community is the opposite. It’s about the involvement of the players. It’s the players who decide if a game is worth playing as it is, or if it would be more inclusive to change it.</p>
<p>Over the next few months I will run a series of workshops, with students, staff and partners all around the world, that will look into “unpacking” the <a href="http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/">games we play</a>. The hope is that these sessions should help to provide solutions and raise some important questions for the sector, directly from the “players”.</p>
<p>And given that a recent poll of almost 38,000 UK students suggested that rates of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/05/levels-of-distress-and-illness-among-students-in-uk-alarmingly-high">psychological distress</a> and illness are on the rise in universities, it is clear the sector desperately needs to reclaim its play community – and create an alternative, cooperative and inclusive “playground” sooner rather than later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97045/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luca Morini received funding from the European council, the Higher Education Funding Council of England and the Newton Fund to research games, learning and culture.</span></em></p>The marketisation of higher education is just a symptom of what’s wrong with universities.Luca Morini, Research Fellow, International Education, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/995032018-07-26T20:53:50Z2018-07-26T20:53:50ZHow playful design is transforming university education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229502/original/file-20180726-106499-zf3vx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Video games have inspired a revolution in university teaching. Pictured here is a scene from the popular game Fortnite Battle Royale.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sergey Galyonkin, Epic Games Berlin via Wikimedia Commons)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A group of 25 interns sit at <a href="https://www.baycrest.org">Baycrest Health Sciences</a>, a research centre for aging in Canada, their eyes glued to their smart phones. They are playing <em>SOS</em> — <a href="http://clri-ltc.ca/?resource=sos-gaming-app-introductory-video-educators">an award-winning game that simulates real-world gerontology practice</a> — where they compete with other students to earn virtual currency. </p>
<p>Across town, a group of professors sit around a table at <a href="https://www.georgebrown.ca">George Brown College</a>, designing a role-playing game with a virtual hospital called <em>The Grid</em>, based on a Matrix-like theme of saving the world from ignorance, for an accredited program in health sciences. Yet another team of game programmers are hard at work at <a href="http://humber.ca">Humber College</a>, building a virtual reality experience of a subway car after a bomb incident. Players wear goggles, moving from person to person, saving some and tagging others for care later on. </p>
<p>Welcome to the new world of serious games and mixed reality. Serious educational games (SEGs) are games designed for learning. Mixed reality is a blend of virtual reality, augmented reality and what are called immersive technologies. </p>
<p>When you combine these, you get a sense of where university education is going. It is called playful design and it’s a <a href="https://www.business.com/articles/5-statistics-that-prove-gamification-is-the-future-of-the-workplace/">multi-billion dollar industry, that was used by over 40 per cent of the top 1,000 companies</a> in 2015. It is also likely coming to a college near you. </p>
<h2>Better than lectures</h2>
<p>There are thousands of peer-reviewed studies on the <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3178707">effectiveness of SEGs</a>, showing that they do three things better than conventional teaching in higher education. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229498/original/file-20180726-106508-18nohyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Serious educational games harness the addictive quality of consumer video games such as such as The Legend of Zelda series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Flickr/Tofoli.douglas)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, they enable skill acquisition, that is, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.03.004">they encourage students to use what they have learned and repeat that many times to master it</a>.</p>
<p>Second, they engage and motivate students more strongly than most lectures. </p>
<p>Third, they reward the learner with achievements every time they play. As far as other comparisons with conventional learning go, they are at least as effective as lectures in most cases for teaching the basics. </p>
<p>In short, there are no compelling reasons not to use games for learning, but there are understandable questions about when and how to do so.</p>
<h2>Achievement, exploration, social connection</h2>
<p>SEGs are divided into categories. They range from card games based on a pharaoh’s empire in which you build an organization, to <a href="https://peartherapeutics.com/reset/">mobile addiction treatment systems</a> approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, to <a href="http://www.simleader.ca/en/ambulance-paramedic/">training simulations for ambulance drivers and paramedics</a> created by Montreal-based SimLeader. </p>
<p>“Gamification” researchers, such as <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/education/faculty-profiles/dkaufman.html">David Kaufman</a> from Simon Fraser University, have held multi-million dollar grants to investigate their use in education over the past decade. </p>
<p>Some of the ideas used in gamification are simple. In “Point, Badge, Leaderboard (PBL)” systems, points lead to badges, which lead to a position in a group. You might earn points for learning about the biology of a moth, then more points when you also learn about the biology of arachnids. This provides the kind of moment-to-moment feedback you get in video games. </p>
<p>In fact, most of the ideas that underlie this field came from video games. There is an impressive body of research showing that <a href="https://theconversation.com/play-games-with-your-kids-this-summer-to-boost-their-brains-94568">video games do improve our brains</a>, despite what well-meaning parents might say when they see children glued to the screen. </p>
<p>And when we take these elements present in good video games — of achievement, exploration, competition and social connection — and use them for learning, an entirely new way of thinking about education emerges.</p>
<h2>An addictive quality</h2>
<p>It is called <a href="https://journals.ala.org/index.php/ltr/article/view/5629/6946">playful design</a> in some fields, based on the idea that we do like play, that it is human to play, not just childish. </p>
<p>But what is meant by play in this context? It is making learning fun, something you want to do more of, not less of. It is seen as a remedy for “training malaise,” the disappointing finding that the majority of what we teach people is not remembered. We forget things that are banal and remember things that have significance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229499/original/file-20180726-106521-12dzvs4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A teaching application showing the interface screen for game-based learning in medicine in partnership with ARC Reach, an Edmonton-based technology company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Baycrest Health Sciences)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Serious games work by practising skills and tracking achievement, but also by giving learning an addictive quality. The “one more move” thinking that keeps video gamers up all night is harnessed for learning. <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenLewisEvans/20130827/198975/">It is based on the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine</a>. What dopamine does is make us want the “next good thing.” Once we get it, we lose interest and want “another good thing.”</p>
<p>This is called <a href="https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/147016/tanskanen_selja.pdf?sequence=2in">a compulsion loop</a> in game design, and can be the basis of making university courses not only relevant, but engaging. It is also a form of active learning, which has been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111">increase grades and decrease failure rates</a> in a major review of research in the field.</p>
<h2>Playgrounds of learning</h2>
<p>The best SEGs now are called “open world games” and are a blend of mixed reality and game design. Imagine living in an alternate reality, where you are not you, but an image of you called an avatar, and this avatar is having adventures building something, defeating a plague or combating addiction. </p>
<p>This is called a “<a href="https://gameanalytics.com/blog/how-to-perfect-your-games-core-loop.html">conglomerate of player satisfaction loops</a>” and, in short, gives you so many things to do in this alternate world that you don’t know where to start. These are truly <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/team-based-learning-and-team-based-playing/196415">open exploratory playgrounds of learning</a>, you can study things in any order you want, there is no scripting of learning in the best SEGs. You simply enter an imaginary digital world and begin to engage with it.</p>
<p>Preliminary studies by professors <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/information-technology-management/faculty-research/deborah-fels/">Deb Fels</a>, <a href="https://procom.ryerson.ca/people/robert-bajko">Rob Bajko</a> and other faculty at Ryerson University for internal purposes have shown that the majority of students prefer to learn using games. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229504/original/file-20180726-106517-1ix16sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students learning to manage care of the frail elderly using a card-based game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Baycrest Health Sciences)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One long term study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.049">tracked a class of students using game-based learning over a three-year period</a> and found there were many types of players. </p>
<p>Some students were thrilled by the game, some less so, but in all cases, the better they did in the game, the better they did in the courses. This has been replicated many times by the author and other teams. </p>
<p>We learn a lot when we love what we are learning. Its a basic benchmark of achievement in higher education. Human beings love doing certain things, and learning to become a master of their own world, however fantastical it might be, is one of them. </p>
<p>Game worlds and mixed reality are rapidly developing fields which any educator with even a passing interest in leveraging student success would be advised to track as it unfolds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Chandross does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University course designers are harnessing the addictive quality of video games to develop ‘Serious educational games’ that engage and motivate students.David Chandross, Professor of Education, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816662017-09-12T23:11:36Z2017-09-12T23:11:36ZHow gamification can boost student success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185565/original/file-20170911-26996-1cyxu6i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=193%2C158%2C2231%2C1280&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A staff-wielding Arcstrider character takes on foes in Destiny 2. The video game by Bungie studio, published by Activision, makes use of badges and other achievements to spur on players — a technique that can be applied to education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a perfect world, students would be self-motivated to focus during lectures and practice or study the material. Unfortunately, this is often not the case for many reasons. Recognizing that <a href="http://www.yorku.ca/retentn/rdata/Unmaskingtheeffects.pdf">engagement is one of the key elements for student success</a> is what leads many of us, as professors and teachers, to develop and adopt techniques to foster it. </p>
<p>As an educator teaching undergraduate students, I have been exploring an approach that I was already familiar with in a non-academic context: Gamification.</p>
<p>In its simplest form, gamification is the application of game design elements to non-game tasks. Some of the richer but more complex gamification techniques include <a href="https://www.classcraft.com/gamification/#modal-iste-2017">quests, “levelling-up” and role-playing</a> while the simpler and more common elements include points, badges, achievements and instant feedback.</p>
<p>Of course, I use more conventional tools as well. The ones I tend to call on most include applied examples, analogy, humour and a healthy dose of pop culture references. I also use group discussions, elements of “<a href="https://library.educause.edu/resources/2012/2/7-things-you-should-know-about-flipped-classrooms">flipped classrooms</a>” and various digital platforms to provide some variety in the delivery methods. I inherited some of these techniques from my own past professors who managed to engage my interest even when the course material seemed of little personal value to me. </p>
<h2>Students need additional motivation</h2>
<p>While these methods have proven useful in increasing engagement during in-class lectures, they don’t help motivate students to complete homework assignments, study for tests or maximize effort in projects.</p>
<p>As in-class engagement increased for my students, a disconnect between interaction in lectures and overall academic performance became apparent. Through conversations with many of them, it seemed that although they enjoyed and understood the lecture topics, they simply lacked the motivation to work for more than a minimally acceptable grade. </p>
<p>Lack of motivation was a particular problem for students taking courses as electives to satisfy another degree program. In order to increase the level of engagement with these students — and hopefully all of my students — I began looking for ways to offer extrinsic motivation. </p>
<p>I drew inspiration from video games.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hMUJ61jT4eY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the newly released Destiny 2, players score achievements marked by badges (shown in the upper center of the screen). This reward system can also be applied to education.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Video games structure motivation</h2>
<p>In video games, badges and “achievements” — recognition for completing minor, secondary or non-essential tasks or goals that do not inherently affect the game’s outcome — are a staple tool to reward players for accomplishments. For example, the highly cooperative <a href="http://www.ghosttowngames.com/overcooked/">Overcooked</a> rewards <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/stats/448510/achievements">players who work together</a> to complete a level using the same controller.</p>
<p>Another game, the story-driven <a href="https://www.orithegame.com/">Ori and the Blind Forest</a>, offers <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/stats/261570/achievements">57 achievements</a> ranging from progress tracking such as “Complete the prologue” to skill-highlighting, including “Finish the game in under three hours” and “Find all secrets.” </p>
<p>Examples abound in all types of games, from puzzle and adventure games like the ones I mentioned, to fast-paced, action-oriented games that test one’s hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes. Whatever the genre, achievements are an established means of motivating players to keep playing and to push their skills further. They are also a motivational technique that many students are familiar with <a href="http://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2016_booklet_Web.compressed2.pdf">given the rates</a> at which they are playing video games.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185568/original/file-20170911-1336-p1r4qk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the game Ori and the Blind Forest, title character Ori (centre) braves obstacles and foes to earn recognition or achievements, which help to motivate players.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Non-game software and mobile phone app developers frequently use badges and achievements to promote sales and increased use. <a href="http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2016/07/why-do-achievements-trophies-and-badges-work/">These offer the same core benefits</a> as in games: a sense of accomplishment, a concrete goal to strive for and ways to foster commitment to achieve that goal.</p>
<p>Use of badges, leaderboards and even quests to promote positive behavioural change is perhaps most evident in the <a href="http://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/top-10-fitness-gamification-examples-get-fit-2017/">fitness software market</a>.</p>
<h2>Gamifying the education experience</h2>
<p>Based on these models, a Laurentian computer science student developed a custom website to support a trial of these simple gamification elements in my first-year computer science course. The website allowed creation of badges based on several categories: assignments, labs, tests, social interactions and miscellaneous (for badges that didn’t fall into any the previous categories). </p>
<p>All of the badges were colour-coded so that students could easily identify and group them by category. The specific criteria for each achievement was designed to reward positive academic or social behaviour, denoted by a title and brief description of the task required to earn the badge. Examples of badges are shown in the image below.</p>
<p>In addition, the site included a leaderboard to promote friendly competition between students. Badges were assigned a point value, based on the perceived difficulty of the required task. The sum of a student’s badge points — rather than the number of badges collected — gave students a relative rank on the leaderboard. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180806/original/file-20170802-19918-1rvxala.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sample badges for academically and socially related tasks.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To protect students’ identities, they used a nickname and could opt out of the leaderboard altogether. Aside from the ranking and point sums on the voluntary leaderboard, all information on the site was private between users. </p>
<h2>Tracking success</h2>
<p>Perhaps the biggest success was the overwhelmingly positive student response to the system. In a brief survey at the end of the courses, over 75 per cent of the students who responded said the system was enjoyable, engaging, and that they would like to see it implemented in other courses. More importantly, students felt it helped motivate them to work harder on assignments, labs and test preparation. </p>
<p>Although a clear increase in academic performance cannot be quantified from the original trial, having students report a qualitative increase in motivation is an important step in the right direction. </p>
<p>Approximately 20 per cent of the initial badges had titles and descriptions that were hidden from the students. The goal of these “mystery” achievements was to provide an element of surprise, with details of the badge revealed only when the task was accomplished and the badge awarded. </p>
<p>It was my hope that the first students who uncovered these tasks would then discuss them with other students, thereby increasing the social aspect around the badge system. Instead, 68 per cent of students said in the exit survey that mystery badges were their least favourite feature. </p>
<h2>Unexpected outcomes and the future</h2>
<p>It appears as though students value the goal-setting nature of the badges over their potential as “fun” surprise elements. Though future implementations are likely to include mystery achievements, the number will be significantly reduced.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most discouraging result was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm when the badge site was used with a subset of the same students in the followup course. The motivational properties of simpler gamification systems — particularly badges and achievements — tend to <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173403">diminish over time</a>. This effect may be mitigated or perhaps even eliminated with further trials, data collection and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4307823/">improved integration of established positive behaviour modification techniques</a>. </p>
<p>Despite some concerns, many professors, teachers and researchers believe that even this type of simple gamification remains a <a href="https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/itet/article/view/18661/18410">valuable engagement tool</a>. It is not a standalone cure for low student engagement nor poor academic performance. Instead, it capitalizes on students’ nearly universal experience with video games and their reward systems to provide a source of extrinsic motivation that supplements effective lecturing and solid pedagogy. </p>
<p>The survey results from the first trial clearly indicate that students enjoyed the experience and felt that it did have a positive impact as an extrinsic motivator. </p>
<p>We are continuing this work with badges and achievements, with more colleagues and their courses participating. This will be accompanied by a formal study to quantify changes in academic performance. Our intention is to improve the current gamification system through iteration, expansion and student feedback.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Langille does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Making education more like playing a game could dramatically improve learning.Aaron Langille, Mathematics, Computer Science, Science, Engineering, Architecture, Laurentian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/767462017-06-09T11:32:57Z2017-06-09T11:32:57ZFrom little Acorns – a brief history of computer games in the classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169338/original/file-20170515-7009-1dijane.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why game playing can be such a powerful tool.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Play <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/64rcw3ts9780252070334.html">has always been central to growing up</a>, – whether it’s in the <a href="http://www.opieproject.group.shef.ac.uk/opies-biography.html">street or on a playing field</a> – or in the structured formality of teachers’ quizzes. </p>
<p>These days tablet computers are in nearly every pupil’s hands and children learn through computer games – both in the classroom and at home. <a href="http://www.technocamps.com/">Children’s coding initiatives</a> and tiny computers such as the <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a> and the BBC’s <a href="http://www.microbit.org/">micro:bit</a> have also become big hits in the education world, helping to teach computer basics in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/52yF6JCCn1X2L4HKBQtgWlP/doctor-who-and-the-micro-bit-mission-sonic">playful ways</a>.</p>
<p>But while it’s tempting to see the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-gaming-in-the-classroom-prepares-children-for-life-in-a-surveillance-state-77287">gamification of education</a> as a new development, there is in fact a long history of children using computer games to help with their learning – which goes right back to the 1970s. </p>
<p>This was the decade during which computers first inched out of <a href="http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html">the research lab</a> and into everyday life, making the idea of a home or personal computer somewhat closer to a reality. In 1974, <a href="http://ted.hyperland.com/">Ted Nelson</a>, a US pioneer of information technology, wrote what is often considered “<a href="http://www.newmediareader.com/book_samples/nmr-21-nelson.pdf">the first personal computer book</a>” – Computer Lib/Dream Machines. It was in this book that with uncanny foresight, Nelson suggested pupils in the future would make use of hyperlinked documents, and touchscreens to widen their knowledge.</p>
<p>Away from Nelson’s speculation, the classroom reality was more mundane. Few schools could afford computers of their own. And for those that could, computer science meant <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35890450">punching instructions onto paper tape</a> – a form of data storage, consisting of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched to store said data.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169343/original/file-20170515-6987-t5anz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GCSE Computing - 1970’s style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The National Museum of Computing</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in the late 1970s, something of a change happened – at least in the UK. And a worried government, concerned about Japanese innovation and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01z4rrj">threats of automation</a>, commissioned a report from the <a href="http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100131636">Manpower Services Commission (MSC)</a> and the BBC to look into how to develop computer literacy initiatives. </p>
<p>Designed to raise computer awareness, these initiatives happily coincided with the rise of microprocessors which were enabling the manufacture of cheaper, smaller machines. And the BBC decided to invite UK companies to submit proposals for a Microcomputer System, to <a href="http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=11935">a predefined specification</a>. A <a href="http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic/proposal.html">system proposed by a young company in Cambridge</a> was chosen and Acorn’s <a href="https://www.stairwaytohell.com/articles/AU-AcornHistory.html">BBC Microcomputer</a> was born.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169339/original/file-20170515-7019-slm1b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The BBC micro in all its glory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11672213">Public Domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Simpler and faster</h2>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/now-chips-are-down">The BBC Micro</a>, along with <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/13/archaeologic_the_research_machines_380z_story/">some other machines</a>, could be bought by schools at half price via <a href="http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104609">government subsidies</a>. </p>
<p>Their beige cases and red function keys became a familiar sight from primary through to university level. But they were still expensive: a discounted “Beeb” and monitor would cost a school <a href="https://archive.org/stream/Acorn_User_Number_011_1983-06_Adn-Wesley_GB/Acorn_User_Number_011_1983-06_Addison-Wesley_GB#page/n1/mode/2up">more than £1,000 at today’s prices</a>. </p>
<p>Learning to program was simpler and faster on the Beeb than in years past, with paper tape replaced by a monitor and a beginner’s coding language known as <a href="http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcbasic.html">BASIC</a> – which stands for “beginner’s all purpose symbolic instruction code”. This meant many more students were able to engage with computer science. </p>
<h2>The rise of the games</h2>
<p>Then there were the games. Despite <a href="http://www.retrogamesnow.co.uk/killer-gorilla-on-the-bbc-micro/">excellent arcade clones</a> and some <a href="http://www.gamestudies.org/1302/articles/agazzard">true</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_(1988_video_game)">originals</a>, the cost of the unsubsidised Beeb made it difficult for it to gain a foothold as a home videogame system. </p>
<p>Perhaps its educational image didn’t help either – and maybe it never quite shook off what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tRErIeqLzg&t=22m53s">comedian Simon Munnery described as</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The stench of school … most of the games would be … Isn’t Geography Nice?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Beebs’ dominance in schools led to a torrent of educational software being released, of varying quality. Indeed, many of these early educational “games” aided nothing more than rote learning.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168129/original/file-20170505-19116-1vwkiqn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stench of educational games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But educational <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ362713">initiatives</a> helped push the boundaries, <a href="http://www.naec.org.uk/artefacts/software/micro-smile">particularly in science and maths</a>. The best-remembered games were imaginative, often programmed by teachers themselves, and learning happened by stealth. For example, the fondly recalled <a href="http://www.4mation.co.uk/retro/retrogranny.html">Granny’s Garden</a>, while limited, took players on a puzzle-solving journey to avoid traps and witches – all rendered in <a href="http://central.kaserver5.org/Kasoft/Typeset/BBC/Ch28.html">teletext graphics</a>. </p>
<p>Adventure was also central to <a href="https://www.atm.org.uk/Shop/L---a-Mathemagical-Adventure---Single-User-Licence/sof073">L: A Mathemagical Journey</a>, which used shades of Lewis Carroll to build players’ numeracy skills, while encouraging them to reflect on their experience.</p>
<p>Straddling home and school, Acorn’s software arm Acornsoft used <a href="http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/mags/eu/revs/acornsoft/Tree_Of_Knowledge_000.html">surprisingly entertaining</a> artificial intelligence techniques to test and extend subject-based learning. Younger, newly literate learners could encounter Podd, a floating head performing various actions at their typed command.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G090ju-DpqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But in the 21st century, it’s not just learning, but the whole education system that has become a game – as schools, classes, teachers and students strive to top the board in league tables and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/dec/06/english-schools-core-subject-test-results-international-oecd-pisa">PISA rankings</a>. At the same time, <a href="https://www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/primary-assessment">teachers’ unions</a>, <a href="http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14465501.Thousands_back_schoolchildren_strike_tomorrow_against_SATS_exams/">children</a> and <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/parents-support-sats-boycott-kids-strike-3rd-may">parents</a> all argue against excessive assessment and testing. </p>
<p>Maybe then we should all learn from the classroom videogame pioneers of the past few decades. Because although it’s clear that game-based learning has a role to play in education, there still needs to be a point to it – within a wider context. </p>
<p>And while educational games can be creative and innovative, they are at their best when they don’t smell too much of school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhys James Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Video games have been helping kids to learn for years, here’s how.Rhys James Jones, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/777632017-05-17T09:04:47Z2017-05-17T09:04:47ZAnthill 13: All the world’s a game<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169510/original/file-20170516-11945-ip1pcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On this month’s episode of The Anthill we are playing games – computer games, grammar games and real life games too. We speak to a researcher who’s fascinated by what happens to people who turn game playing into a career. And we’ll look at whether we can make education more engaging by turning it into a competition.</p>
<p>First we talk to an expert in game theory. Abhinay Muthoo is an economist at the University of Warwick who specialises in one of game theory’s key concerns: bargaining. He spoke to Anthill producer Annabel Bligh about how to best negotiate a better salary – it’s all about emphasising your market value. He also has some sage advice on how to apply game theory to your love life. According to Abhinay, all the world’s a game and if we study game theory we can achieve better outcomes in life.</p>
<p>Next up, education editor Holly Squire investigates how games are increasingly being used in classrooms. Jacob Habgood, games designer at Sheffield Hallam University explains the rise in game-based learning and how to make them as effective as possible. Holly also talks to Rowena Kasprowicz at the University of York and has a go at a French grammar game she is designing to help with language learning in primary schools. But is there a darker side to this? Carlo Perrota warns about the addictive nature of games and the need to protect against it. </p>
<p>From games in the classroom, we then graduate to the workplace. The Conversation editor, Emily Brown, takes a dive into the world of competitive eSports. It’s a fast-growing and lucrative market that had a global audience of some 320m people <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39119995">and revenues of £400m in 2016</a>. She discusses what it’s like for the players whose careers are spent fighting for a slice of this pie with Tom Brock, a sociologist at Manchester Metropolitan University. He explains that there is research to show both benefits and negatives to life as a professional gamer. </p>
<p><em>You can read more about the use of gaming in education in our new series <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/gaming-1806">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Click here to listen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">more episodes of The Anthill</a>, on themes including <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-10-the-future-73404">The Future</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-11-waste-not-want-not-74948">Waste</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-9-when-scientists-experiment-on-themselves-71852">Self-experimentation</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Anthill theme music is by <a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/search/How+to+Steal+a+Million+Dollars/">Alex Grey for Melody Loops</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this month's episode of The Anthill, we are playing games – computer games, grammar games and real life games, too.Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK editionEmily Lindsay Brown, Editor for Cities and Young People, UK editionAnnabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UKGemma Ware, Head of AudioHolly Squire, Special Projects Editor, The Conversation UKLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/772872017-05-12T15:08:34Z2017-05-12T15:08:34ZHow gaming in the classroom prepares children for life in a surveillance state<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169143/original/file-20170512-3692-1t112ft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s well known that surveillance effects how we behave. A <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2769645">recent study</a> on the issue showed that traffic to Wikipedia articles on controversial subjects dropped off significantly after Edward Snowden revealed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data">widespread Internet surveillance</a> by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html?utm_term=.20690cd6d259">NSA and GCHQ</a>. </p>
<p>This shows both the short and long-term effect that intrusion into our private lives can have on perfectly legal activities. It also reflects the “panopticon effect” described by French social theorist Michel Foucault. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon-digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham">panopticon</a> was an 18th century prison designed so that prison guards could see into prison cells from their tower, but prisoners could not see the guards. Its purpose was to motivate prisoners to behave well, not through brute force, but through their fear of being seen. </p>
<p>While mass surveillance in Britain does not carry the same threat of physical harm experienced by those living under violent dictatorships, it does <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session23/A.HRC.23.40_EN.pdf">threaten to shape the way we speak</a> and act with one another – creating a less free society. </p>
<h2>Gaming the classroom</h2>
<p>This increase in mass surveillance is also happening in the classroom – through the use of online games that keep score and report back to the teacher in real time about a pupil’s behaviour and abilities.</p>
<p>“Gamification” in schools teaches children that they should expect their every move to be watched, rated and possibly shared publicly. It makes a lack of privacy appear normal and prepares young people to accept mass surveillance in their adult lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168654/original/file-20170509-11012-1afrwg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Presidio Modelo prison, a panopticon design, in Isla de la Juventud, Cuba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon#/media/File:Presidio-modelo2.JPG">Friman/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While gamification has long played a role in education through non-digital teaching strategies such as sticker charts and school houses, over recent years, <a href="http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/Speak%20Up%20May%202015_PR1.pdf">interest has increased</a>. Now, teachers use new digital tools such as classroom management platforms and game-like educational software to see, capture and judge a wider range of childrens’ behaviour in ever greater detail. </p>
<p>Some education providers, such as IBM’s <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/watson/2016/07/sentiment-emotion-attitude-personality-via-natural-language-processing/">emotion-reading supercomputer Watson</a> and <a href="https://codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/pearson-ibm-watson/">education publisher Pearson</a>, even hope to record and understand how students think and feel.</p>
<h2>Observations from the field</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/about-us/directory/laura-pinkerton/">My study</a> on how the new computing standards in England’s National Curriculum are being experienced in the primary school classroom has documented several instances of gamification gone big brother. In one school I saw the introduction of a new house system where points were handed out by older students who hid around corners in the hallway, scribbling down notes on unsuspecting children. </p>
<p>These notes were uploaded onto <a href="https://www.classdojo.com/">ClassDojo</a> – a cloud-based platform for tracking and reporting students’ behaviour – nightly for parents to view. The weekly aggregate of these scores was then shown to the whole class each Friday, so that students could see how they and their classmates matched up against one another.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169118/original/file-20170512-3675-1qm873a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The classroom: gamified.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another school, students were frequently reminded by their teacher that she could see everything they did on their one-to-one iPads through a screen capture programme. Later, this teacher compared their relatively gentle teaching style with that used on some of the children’s parents abroad, where students had to kneel over broken cocoa shells until they had successfully recited their multiplication tables. </p>
<p>I guess it’s easy to see how this type of modern-day monitoring is seen as relatively harmless compared to the violence experienced by some schoolchildren elsewhere in the world.</p>
<h2>More harm than good</h2>
<p>But while the gamification of the classroom through educational software is clearly less physically violent than corporal punishment, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into believing that gamification is a universally fun and engaging experience for all children. And it may even <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131514002000">cause harm</a> or <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.491.1692&rep=rep1&type=pdf">negatively impact students</a>, if used without understanding the risks involved. </p>
<p>Even in cases where it has a positive effect on student behaviour, we should still proceed with caution. Because, if we’re not careful, we risk teaching young children to accept an all-seeing, all-knowing eye in their lives. And that this “panopticonic” gaze should be feared and valued more than internal motivations such as curiosity, passion, and drive.</p>
<p>The popularity of gamification is understandable. Learning should be fun at least some of the time and teachers need to know what students are doing in their classroom. But with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39817300">ever-increasing means</a> of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-charter-bill-becomes-law-extending-uk-state-surveillance">mass surveillance</a> in the adult world, we should be teaching children to think critically about privacy and fear – rather than training them to give up the former and live by the latter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura R. Pinkerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gamification in schools teaches children that they should expect their every move to be watched, rated, and possibly shared publicly.Laura R. Pinkerton, DPhil Researcher in Education, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.