Gamification in Education

Playing is a fundamental human action. We started playing when we were children, we all have a direct experience of games.

According to Roger Caillois, play has six main features:

• it is free, not obligatory;
• it is regulated, governed by rules which must be observed by players;
• it is separate from the routine of life, occupying its own time and space;
• it involves make-believe that confirms for players the existence of imagined, ficticious realities that may be set against 'real life';
• it is unproductive in that it creates no wealth and ends as it begins;
• it is uncertain, so that the results of play cannot be pre-determined and so that the player's initiative is involved;

and can be divided into four main categories:

• Agon, including games which involve competition;
• Alea, or chance, including aleatory games;
• Mimicry,role-playing;
• Ilinx, vertigo games which alter physical perception, such as roller coasters.

These elements can be combined in various ways.

Playing involves pleasure, self-expression, motivation and engagement, just to name a few, and contributes to developing motory, cognitive, language and social skills. That's why it can be a vital ally in designing learning.

    

Today's learners live in a world dominated by videogames. Can we teachers integrate videogames in our teaching practice? There are some characteristics which make videogames useful learning tools: they are interactive, they can help the gamer to simulate events and situations through role-play and live parallel lives (virtual worlds and simulation games), they are engaging and could motivate reluctant students.
Serious games, for example, are "games designed for a purpose beyond pure entertainment. They use the motivation levers of game design - such as competition, curiosity, collaboration, individual challenge - and game media, including board games through physical representation or video games, through avatars and 3D immersion, to enhance the motivation of participants to engage in complex or boring tasks. Serious games are therefore used in a variety of professional situations such as education, training, assessment, recruitment, knowledge management, innovation and scientific research." (Financial Times Lexicon).

Notes and reflections from the MOOC "Gamification in educazione" by University of Florence