Key points:
- Gamification can encourage students to take ownership of their learning
- Discover the different gamified resources one teacher uses to engage students
- See related article: Are you teaching with Minecraft and Roblox? You should be
Gamification is one of the biggest in education trends right now in education. According to ISTE, “Gamification is about transforming the classroom environment and regular activities into a game” (Haiken, 2021). Many students want more than just good grades from school–they want something physical or immediate. “Gamification empowers students with the ultimate in choices when setting goals for what badges and achievements they want to complete, which leads to learners building skills for self-reliance and self-control” (McCarthy, 2021).
Embracing gamification in the classroom will lead to students taking responsibility for their learning while also enjoying their time in class.
Here are three examples of gamification I use in my fourth grade classroom:
1. Gimkit: My students absolutely adore this game. They are constantly asking if there is a kit they can play. Gimkit is a game that can be played live or assigned to students as homework. Teachers create kits with questions for their students. There are multiple ways to play with those questions.
There are 2D modes, where the students have characters called gims, and they play
collaborative games such as Tag or Capture the Flag. There are also non collaborative games like Farm Chain and Fishtopia. The questions in each kit are used to help the students get energy to be able to complete the tasks at hand. If they do not answer questions correctly, they will run out of energy and won’t be able to move.
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