As I repeatedly ask my five year old to clean up his toys and pick up after himself, I am reminded that kids will not always do what they are asked. When I turn on my phone timer and ask him to see how may he can pick up in thirty seconds, all of a sudden he wants to partake. Gamification instantly turns a mundane task into something he wants to be a part of and win at. His effort goes from 0 to 100 in seconds and he frequently asks to keep playing. This translates directly into the classroom as well.
Many teachers use gamification in their classroom often with a variety of games from digital to paper based. Distance learning has thrown a wrench in that for most students and teachers since the assignments they are giving are the opposite of games. What would yield high engagement in the classroom is lacking from some google classroom and students are missing it too. I have been discussing with fellow specialist and teachers on ways to keep engagement high during this time and how to motivate students to participate. I have a few ideas that can include gamificiation.
First, use your classroom meeting time to play a game together. Whether in zoom or google meets, the ability to share a screen or send out a game code allows all students who join to jump in on the fun. A digital game such as desmos polygraph, quizizz, or gimkit lets students interact with the material, review or new, while playing with their classmates the way they would in the classroom. All of these sites allow the teacher to view the data after the game and address any misconceptions or students’ needs. You can provide feedback to students and even reassign the game if you needed it for a grade. This also helps students socialize in an educational setting and even collaborate virtually. If you give your students a heads-up which day you will be playing a game together, I am sure you will see an increase in students attending the class meeting time.
My second idea is to create a game in google slides that your students can work through, either in teams or individually. I created game boards(shown below) in google drawings with game pieces so students can collaborate on the same drawing and move their game pieces. You can grab a copy of the cloud template here. You can add a timer to a google slide so it feels more game like when they answer questions. You can even award digital badges for completing games(practice problems). Basically, you are taking some problems you would already assign to the students and turning it into a game that encourages participation. You could make the problems into a tic-tac-toe or connect 4 google slides and ask they answer correctly they move a circle to that portion of the slides. They submit their work once they have made a connect 4. This gives students a choice while also making the activity a little more fun. If you make an activity in google be sure to save it for future school years since these games can also be played in the classroom!
My last idea is to use the remind app. If you already have students in your remind app ,you can send out questions to them and keep score. These can be questions from daily random trivia, to math vocabulary or even SAT problems. Students respond back to you with their answer and you can award points. While this may seem like a lot of housekeeping, I would dedicate a certain time each day to reading though the responses and checking off on a class list who responded correctly. You can send out a leader board, award badges such as rising star, or give “extra credit” points towards their distance learning.
How have you used games during distance learning and how have your students responded to them?
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