I ’ m a geek
Gamification
By : Gonzalo Valderrama Guardia
Gamification is a barely new concept that is changing the way people do activities these days . It can be defined as the application of game elements and mechanics and digital game design techniques to non-game problems or contexts . It is a current trend among software developers who want to make their programs more engaging and businesses who want to increase the productivity among their workers .
Basic techniques of gamification motivate certain desired behaviors by taking advantage of the human tendency to engage in gaming , as it distracts people from what they are actually doing . These techniques are known to most Internet users , as they are already present in very famous sites such as Facebook and Foursquare . They are simpler than anyone could think : winning points , obtaining badges , leveling up , climbing up “ leader boards ”, using virtual currency , showing progress bars , fulfilling quest , having avatars , etc . Adding these features to websites and programs , where there may be tasks considered otherwise rather dull or stressing , makes them not only endurable , but also enjoyable .
One important example of the brilliant use of gamification is the educational website khanacademy . org . Salman Khan , the site creator , incorporated game-like characteristics to make it more attractive for a younger learner audience . Students can win points and badges by doing exercises and watching videos and progress bars tell them how good their performance is at a given task .
If this does not blow your mind , then you have no emotion
A lot of people , specially US teachers and people who feel identified with Humanities more than with hard Sciences , have struggled at least once with mathematical problems . As we were still in school , educational institutions and teachers were unable to do much for the students who needed longer time to understand a given task and were forced to continue
with the next one , leaving a bunch of their students frustrated for not understanding and at disadvantage among their peers who managed to reach the objectives in time .
In 2004 , Salman Khan made a huge discovery . He started posting math tutorials in YouTube for his nephews , as he was tutoring them from a long distance . Shortly after , other users of the popular video site started posting him comments and thanking him , because his videos helped their children understand mathematics . At that point he realized that he had found a great teaching tool still not fully exploited .
By 2012 , there were more than 3,400 videos that can be found in khanacademy . org along with math exercises generators displayed in a gamelike fashion to make them more engaging . Teachers can tell their students to do all the exercising they need at home at their own pace and use the time at school for experimentation , humanizing the classroom .
This system is already being applied in different schools in USA , and , hopefully , we can expect to find it in a school near us soon . As Bill Gates said , this is the future of education .
You got to the end of this article , so you are now a hundred points richer . One can only wonder what else can be made into a game by just adding points to it . Is everything considered boring going to be “ gamified ” some day ?
http :// www . khanacademy . org http :// vimeo . com / 46304267
http :// www . ted . com / talks / lang / en / salman _ khan _ let _ s _ use _ vi deo _ to _ reinvent _ education . html
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