Is Gamification The Key to a Smarter Generation?

Can I take you back in time to the good old primary school days? Say you got 60% in a science test and the pass mark was 80%. Your 10-year-old self would receive not 1, not 2, but 20 canes on your butt if you were a boy and on your hands if you were a girl.

The twisted thing about corporal punishment is that it is used to literally beat out the failure in you. Yet as game enthusiasts, we all know that failure like losing your life in a game is simply an opportunity to start over and try again.

The fact that it is okay to fail multiple times and start again creates a safe space for failure when learning through games. This is an element of games that can be extremely helpful in the education system as well as in improving the general literacy levels of this generation’s population. And this is where gamification comes in.

What is Gamification?

Simply put, gamification is the use of game concepts and aesthetics in non-game environments to positively motivate behavior. In my case, the colorful graphics, animations, music and the fact that I could regularly see my progress report highlighting my improving typing accuracy and typing speed motivated me to consistently go back to the gamified software and continue learning daily.

Going back to primary school days, it’s good to note that not everything was wrong with the education system. I loved P.E and I still remember how good I felt playing a friendly football match in the neighboring school’s field for the first time. How on that day, I scored a goal on the wrong side and rejoiced so ecstatically before I found out what I had done. The laughter that followed died down as fast as my embarrassment and memory. And we continued playing like nothing had happened.

If the same principles of play such as friendly competition and the creation of room to safely start over when you fail had been transferred from the playground and into the classroom, most of us would have had less stressful and more productive experiences in classrooms. However, all is not lost and since learning is a never-ending process; we still have a chance to make the process a little more fun and engaging through gamification.

Foldit was developed by the University of Washington and it makes protein folding into an immersive online game playable by the general public. Players with little or no knowledge in Biochemistry can collaborate and compete in creating the structures. Scientists are only left with doing the final touches.

In the case of the anti-AIDS drug research, the highly immersive environment of Foldit hacked the players’ brains. It created a safe space to fail, start over and have fun competing with fellow gamers. This must have been what helped them do what had been an unfruitful 15 years worth of work in an unlikely 10 days.

If we implement gamification in schools there’s no telling the number of breakthroughs that will ensue. Children will study because they genuinely enjoy learning and not because of fear of aching body parts after exams. Now you tell me, is gamification the key to a smarter generation?

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