Todd Partridge (Utah State University)
Abstract
Some students don't take their education very seriously, but more often our students take their grades so seriously, it impedes an effective education. In the education system, learners often feel discouraged and ready to give up at the first signs of failure, especially in mathematics courses. However, when trying to master or 'beat' a difficult game, learners are much more motivated to push past failure until they achieve their desired results. Studies show that there are certain elements of game design that can be injected into education in a way that can help students approach their education with the same optimistic tenacity. In this presentation, we will learn about the parts of game design that have been shown to most effectively promote a growth mindset and a willingness to try for students.
Participants will see how effective gamification strategies have been in motivating hospital patients to cooperate, in getting more people in a community to obey traffic laws, in helping untrained brains make significant scientific breakthroughs, and more. They will see each of eight main gamification techniques at work in real-life scenarios, then they will have an opportunity to brainstorm how they could incorporate one or more of these techniques into some aspect of their own teaching. They should walk away with a greater excitement for the prospect that gamification in the classroom need not only be confined to the wildly creative or the "rule-breakers" in the teaching world.