Gamification

          Gamification, according to Educause is "the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior". Gamification argues that any activity in the classroom can be turned into a game in order to make it more effective. Better games yield an increase in student motivation and heightened learning.
          Games were my favorite part of being a student and my teachers always seemed to work pretty hard to incorporate games wherever possible. But why?
          Games increase student motivation to learn a language because they make learning fun. Students generally want to learn, but if it seems that it is difficult then they will have less desire to do so. By incorporating games into instruction and practice, teachers can make language learning more enjoyable, therefore increasing the probability that students will partake in it. For example, if given the chance to choose between a lengthy research paper about mediation or some sort of game that allows students to match key concepts with their definitions in a fun and interactive way, students will most certainly always choose the fun option. Learning when made fun seems less like learning, increasing students' desire to participate, and increasing their learning overall. Because games essentially make students learn more, why shouldn't they be incorporated? Gamification in the language classroom makes learning more enjoyable and engaging for all.

          A game that I wish to cite that I can imagine myself using in my language classroom is Castaway, a simple html game that creates a situation with options that change in every turn. The game has many optional endings, ranging from starving to death or being eaten by sharks to finding a very successful fresh start somewhere in Canada. I played through this game about a half dozen times in order to figure out the different options and although it loses its interest after about the third time, I thought this game was the most engaging thing in the world the first time that I saw it and I anticipate my students playing through it a maximum of two times.
          If I were to use Castaway in my language learning classroom, I would use it with this objective: "Students will be able to use oral conversation, reasoning, and justification with a partner to complete a castaway scenario." Ideally, students will survive the scenario (points will be awarded for students who do so) but the language objective is for students to use reasoning and justification to make decisions and as long as students are doing that, I would consider this a successful lesson.
          In this scenario, the teacher would walk students through the introduction and get them to the first decision-making page. Students would be placed into effective pairs (preferably with a high proficiency student in each grouping) and they would receive the task. The goal is to get off of the island and students cannot make a decision if they do not both agree on what they choose to do. Each student pair would have a tablet or computer with this website loaded and would be told that no "back" buttons were allowed, nor "restarts". Students would have to work with their partner to reason through the different options made available to the castaway with the goal of surviving. Student teams who survived would receive a prize and if a student team does not survive the first time, they will be given a second attempt to choose different options and hopefully come out alright. The teacher will record the success of student attempts. There will be a first prize for student teams who survive the scenario on their first walkthrough, and second prize for student teams who get through on their second attempt.
          Although the game has clear objectives, the student learning objective will be measured by teacher observation and it should be easy to measure. Are students conversing with each other? Are they presenting their opinions in a clear way? Are they being respectful of their partner? If the students are interacting in an effective way in order to complete the scenario, the learning objective has been accomplished.
          I think that this activity would be very fun for students and I think that the objective would be easily measurable merely by teacher observation.