My First Trial With Gamification

I started implementing digital games into my lessons, with the help of some of my team members. We all decided to use the website Starfall.com to let the students play reading and writing games, in addition to our usual group classwork. Although this is a step in the right direction, there were some issues using the site, specifically getting the administrative allowance. In the end, we had a conference in which we explained the use of the website and the importance of differentiating the curriculum delivery style, and it really helped to persuade the administrators and solved our problem. When pitching the idea to your supervising teachers or administrators some useful points that helped my team include:

• Using games in addition to the classic style of delivery, not in replacement
• Give an example of the games used and how you will use them
• Note that students need computing skills to take exams later in their academic career 
• Digital games meet ISTE standard 6A and 6B
• Students produce better test results when taught using game-based learning strategies (We had to do some research to prove this one and found this information at in an article online. If you want to read through it there is a citation and link at the end) 

We received administrative permission yesterday and the website will start being integrated in the coming weeks.

Article Used:
Gutenschwager, Gerald. “Gaming, Education, and Change.” JAE, vol. 33, no. 1, 1979, pp. 30–32.

www.jstor.org/stable/1424462.