Reflection 7

Reflections on Gamification

Reflect on what we discussed in this week’s class. Specifically, reflect on your impression on the gamification of learning. Do you agree or disagree with this practice? How would you incorporate aspects of gamification within your planned teachable concentration? When relevant, list resources such as free or licensed gamified learning apps, or in-person activity frameworks, that you feel would be useful in implementing gamification in your future classes.

There are pros and cons to gamifying your classroom, and I will list some of them right now:

Pros

• Gamification makes learning more engaging and enjoyable, and encourages students to actively participate.
• Games provide a sense of achievement and progression, motivating learners to overcome challenges and achieve learning objectives.
• Can foster healthy competition among students and promote collaboration, as many games require teamwork.
• Games provide immediate feedback, allowing learners to learn form their mistakes in real-time (a great way for either formative or summative assessment for the teacher).

Cons

• There’s a risk of learners focusing more on the rewards than the actual learning, potentially leading to superficial understanding.
• While gamification works well for certain subjects, it may not be as effective or appropriate for all types of learners.
• Creating effective gamified learning experiences can take a lot of time for the teacher, and requires a bit of expertise on game design on the teacher’s part.

Based on these pros and cons, I would ere on the side of gamifying my classroom, as I believe that the benefits outweigh the risks, especially because I have a bit of experience when it comes to games. As per my free inquiry project, I am very experienced in board games and role playing games in general, so I feel like I would have the right knowledge and confidence to apply it in my classroom.

Integrating Games in a Biology Class

There is a cool website that has board games that are related to STEM subject matters. The company is called Genius games, and they produce games related to Biology, Chemistry, Science History, and Math. For my biology class I would look into various games, but one that stood out to me was Cytosis (see picture of game below). The neat thing about this game is that it is free to play on Tabletopia, so you can have free access for the kids, and it is a great way to explore and familiarize with animal cell anatomy.

Other free apps include:

• Kahoot!
• Khan Academy
• Photomath
• Quizizz