EDUTAINMENT and Gamification! Let’s Play and Learn?!

I grew up at a time when playing and learning did not happen at the same time. Being able to play was the reward for learning and doing what I was supposed to do.  Learning was serious and playing was what I did outside of the classroom.  Playing games consisted of playing outside, playing boardgames and playing make-believe.  Play has a completely different meaning for kids growing up now and the social aspect of play involves different elements as well.  Further to this point, it was mentioned in class that we are at a point where education as we knew it no longer exist in a sense.  To the point where some assume that technology is a threat to education but does it have to be? We have moved towards collaborative learning theories and implementing those to engage learners so why not implement native online strategies to integrate play and gaming into learning.  Gaming is now one of the principle forms of entertainment and teaching in a way that students will actually want to learn is equally as important.  If students have a choice between writing a story/reading a book and doing something digital and playing a game, the likeliness is they will pick the digital and play option.  This brings me to the concept of EDUTAINMENT that is taking on a new meaning with the concept of Gamification.  Gamification is using game thinking and game mechanics to solve problems and engage people and is a technique widely used by marketers to promote loyalty.  It is gaining interest among learning and development professionals as a powerful way to drive learner engagement.  Gamification provides opportunities for interactive activities and we witnessed a living case study highlighting best practices in the design, development and implementation of a Gamification solution at Ford of Canada. 

All this being said, we have had several workshops in my workplace about integrating Gamification into our learning programs (online and in class) and we work with adults.  So, I started thinking some more and thought if adults are gaming at a much higher rate than in the past then it’s only natural that students in elementary and high school will be doing the same because there’s a natural inclination to want to play when we’re young.  With considerable planning, thought and development perhaps Gamification would actually help engage students in learning especially with content heavy subjects or material.  This presents a challenge with permissions, accessibility and cost among other things however scaling it and starting small, generating interest and then potentially taking larger steps could be worth a lot more than we realise because we now have the possibility of making anything and everything in learning FUN!

I watched these 2 videos among others about Gamification (The first is much shorter and the second a little long, but nonetheless interesting) Check them out!

Submitted by Safia