Gamifying Education

For this assignment, I had to watch the video "Video Games and Learning" by James Portnow and Daniel Floyd.

There are a few points that are the most important when thinking about "gamifying" education. That is, making regular video games more educational and making educational games more fun. The first, and I believe most major, point is the thought that video games can incorporate tangential learning. Tangential learning is gaining knowledge through play. In this case, playing video games. If video game developers insert just a little factual or historical information into a game, people will be more willing to look up that information without being forced to. It's the idea that people will WANT to find out more information if it is relevant to what they are interested in. For example, if a character has a historically based name, the gamer is more likely to look up information about that person in history and learn something. Knowing that one character is based on someone in history, they will be searching for other historically named characters to research as well. This is learning.

Another important point is that learning needs to happen, but without getting in the way of fun. If gamers didn't know they were learning, it would be much easier to get them to actually learn. Keeping the element of fun unhindered, gamers can absorb knowledge that will make them more competent and confident individuals. They will want to share their knowledge with others users while playing, or insert their knowledge into forums or on wikis. Video games can have benefits, as much as educational games can be fun.