Issues with Gamification

As I continue to read I am encountering many issues with Gamification. The evidence is strong, as reported in an article by Edutopia, "There's evidence that strong narratives will motivate kids to solve hard puzzles, said Jan Plass, co-director of the Games for Learning Institute. In one study, he said, a child pursued one problem for 45 minutes -- and this was a problem that the girl wasn't particularly interested in to begin with. Is that music to anyone's ears" (Edutopia, 2010)? But the counter-arguments and issues of the reality of this new endeavor go something like this:
1. How do you go about creating a strong narrative for learning?
2. How do you create the "gaming environment?"
3. How do you create engaging graphics and environments that model realistic events and issues?
4. What about access to the technology?
5. What about skills for using the technology?
6. What about demonstrating learning through assessment (ie where is the assessment on a game? They win, they beat the simulation, they demonstrate their learning by completing the problem?)

And finally, what about the time required to create such a game, or locate a game that can meet the needs of your students?

It is always good to consider the devils advocate when standing on the precipice of a new venture.

Edutopia (2010, June 01). Beyond Blowing Up Enemies: The Future of Games for Learning. Edutopia, Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/games-for-change-festival

Gamification

"Good games get people to spend a lot of time and money doing things that are difficult and complex" (Renauld & Wagoner 2011 p.59). Which is one reason I think that gaming has hit the 21st century and has no intentions of leaving. Furthermore this same concept was observed by Judy Willis, "Games insert players at their achievable challenge level and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incremental goal progress, not just final product. The fuel for this process is the pleasure experience related to the release of dopamine" (Willis, 2011). Willis (2011) goes on to state, "In humans, the dopamine reward response that promotes pleasure and motivation also requires that they are aware that they solved a problem, figured out a puzzle, correctly answered a challenging question, or achieved the sequence of movements needed to play a song on the piano or swing a baseball bat to hit a home run. This is why students need to use what they learn in authentic ways that allow them to recognize their progress as clearly as they see it when playing video games."

So what is it exactly about games that keeps bringer a player back? Renauld and Wagoner (2011, p.20) suggest the following:
*Games provide constant real-time feedback and give players opportunities to react to that feedback.
*Games provide safe places to make mistakes and errors.
*Games provide players a sense of control and repetition for new learning and application as necessary, allowing players the opportunities to make decisions and change goals.
*Games that are truly engaging are frustrating and "right on the edge of being too difficult."
*Players are allowed to perform before demonstrating understanding, allowing for the building of skills and knowledge through doing.
*Games allow for systems thinking, in which players can see the interconnectedness of ideas and knowledge.
*Games can distribute knowledge and skills to accomplish a task across many people allowing for individuals in a group to use their tools and skills to complete the task with different and varied groups.

Is it possible that teaching teachers to be teachers would be better done through game design?
"When using games-based learning, the teacher becomes a guide or an ar- chitect of students’ learning, rather than a deliverer of knowledge" (Renauld & Wagoner 2011 p.58).


Renaud, C. & Wagoner, B. (Sep 2011) The Gamification of Learning; Principal Leadership. Reston; Vol. 12, Iss. 1; p. 57 (3 pages)

Willis, J. (2011, April 04). A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool. Edutopia, Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-student-engagement-judy-willis

Game Design and Backwards Design

I am very happy to say that taking the Technology in Instructional Design Class at the same time as my Independent Study focusing on Game Design is fantastic. The two are perfect together. Wiggins and Mctighe's Understanding by Design provides a beautiful framework for designing solid units based on standards.
This same framework should be applied to the game design atmosphere, thinking about enduring understandings, essential questions and assessments first. Furthermore, since the gaming environment allows for non-linear experience, one can easily work in the 6 facets of understanding: can explain, can interpret, can apply, have perspective, can empathize, have self-knowledge.

In fact, this can be seen from Edutopia's article: Design Thinking: Creative Ways to Solve Problems. The article shares a pdf of a template for creating Design Challenges. this structure can be directly applied to Game Design Simulations.

So my design brain can not help but think, how can I design this process so that any teacher can pick up a "game design template" and integrate into their classroom and content area. And then I recalled a Ted Talk's by Marcin Jakubowski on DIY design. How about DIY learning design.

Perhaps the piece that continues to elude me, though, is how to create these games (simulations) with little or no technology understanding. Is it possible? Is it necessary? Will it make it more accessible?