Gaming in the Classroom
Discussion Question
Wendy Ayers
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
Wendy Ayers
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wendy Ayers
Email: wfayers@liberty.edu
Issues surround traditional K-12 education with increasingly disengaged students as well as lack of student motivation in the classroom. Gaming is a popular trend occurring in K-12 education to improve student performance. Research has shown gaming in education increases student engagement, concentration, motivation, collaborative learning, increased information retention, and performance (Iorgulescu, 2022). However, there are challenges to gamification in education. Iorgulescu (2022), indicates there are ethical risk associated with gaming such as unclear goals, linking rewards with behavior, the use of leaderboards which may inflict negative feelings, and potential security issues with personal data. Gaming may interfere with cognitive abilities, lack of motivation unless rewards are involved, and undesirable consequences of competition (Iorgulescu, 2022).
I like to incorporate gaming in my classroom if time permits. I use a question answer platform with two groups of three students. The content is medical questions with a final question, winner takes all. There are no prizes other than students get a chance to have fun and learn.
Gamification in education is a great tool if it incorporates easily into curriculum, inspires student to learn, and meets learning goals. It is inappropriate to use gamification in education if it does not benefit student learning. If students are more interested in winning than learning, gaming will not benefit students. Personalizing games to enhance a student’s learning outcomes is not well studied so it may not be appropriate to use games that don’t offer personalization (Oliveira, Hamari, Shi, Toda, Rodrigues, Palomino, & Isotani, 2023).
References
Iorgulescu, S. (2022). An analysis of gamification in education. The need for an ethical code.
Europolity, 16(2), 101-126.
Oliveira, W., Hamari, J., Shi, L., Toda, A. M., Rodrigues, L, Palomino, P. T., & Isotani, S.
(2023). Tailored gamification in education: A literature review and future agenda.
Education and Information Technologies, 28, 373-406.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11122-4
No comments:
Post a Comment