Gamifying education and making it personal: Is it a fact or a fad?

When I mastered Minecraft and became addicted to it, my boys moved on to Fortnite. Damn. I'm too old for this nonsense. I've made lazy attempts to learn the ins and outs of the new game, but there is a whole universe of rules, prizes, and strategies to master to get into the gameplay. Who has time for all that? A good dad would realize how important it is to keep pace with his sons by sharing their interests, which today includes ranking well in Battle Royale. I'm mediocre by that criterion (but trying). Watching them makes me say repeatedly, "If only we could find a way to make Fortnite (and whatever comes next) the primary way we teach content, our kids would all be heading for Harvard."

The Inspiration - Mr. Pai's Gamified Classroom

This reminds me of Mr. Pai, the teacher I met in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, who had successfully gamified his classroom and boosted the achievement of his students. Mr. Pai came to my attention through a friend actively steering black boys into his classroom because his success with them was besting his colleagues. The district was failing miserably with students of color, and the primarily white district was out of answers for how to turn it around. But Mr. Pai was proving their potential. His colleagues hated him for it because his students developed high expectations for how engaging teaching should be. That was a problem for teachers following Mr. Pai, who, like me, needed more time to learn a new game.

The Gamified Classroom

In his class, the district-issued textbooks sat unwrapped on the shelves. Instead, he crafted his learning sequences and a series of tech stations to keep each student challenged and progressing. There were math, reading, and science games on Gameboy handhelds, desktop computers, and laptops that his students eagerly jumped on and off as if they were in an arcade. That thing about competition being bad for education didn't hold because the students were so enthralled with scoring and their peers on the math-based games that they would keep playing from home at night, on weekends, and during holiday breaks. It was all magic to me. Why wasn't this around when I was bored as hell in school?

Gamification and Personalized Learning

The educator and fellow blogger who visited Mr. Pai's class with me were less enamored. They raised pedagogical questions over my head, making me uneasy about my enthusiasm. Still, at the same time, I've kept the faith. I know enough to be appropriately cynical about anything in education that looks or sounds too good to be accurate. However, watching my kids learn complex concepts by accessing YouTube and playing Xbox games shows that personalized learning and technology are keys to making learning relevant for modern students. Others with better credentials than mine agree. Call it confirmation bias if you will, but it's why I seize on opinion pieces like this one by Sean Oaks, writing in Crain's New York:

"When ed tech software gamifies learning by offering students levels to conquer, points to accumulate, and badges to earn in pursuit of a goal, it gives students more opportunities to engage and delight in their education. Students report that they enjoy the learning process more when activities allow them to take an active role and engage directly with material. Higher engagement rates also make students more persistent when they encounter setbacks—helping them to develop grit. Simply put, students work better and harder when they feel like an active participant in the classroom."

Teachers Leading the Way

But ed-tech wasn't the first to figure this out—teachers were. Project-driven learning and student-centered learning give students more autonomy in the classroom, allowing them to drive discussions, pursue their interests, and set meaningful goals. When teachers combine personalized instruction with incentive-driven in-class projects, they see benefits like improved student motivation and better learning retention. Some research even suggests that teachers prioritizing goal-setting experience fewer disciplinary problems simply because their students are more engaged.

Challenges and Caution

Better learning. More engagement. Fewer problems with discipline. Why wouldn't that be compelling? Well, there are valid cautions. Not everything people call personalized learning is personalized learning. Education tech enthusiasts seeking brave new roads to the future may be guilty of overheated claims of success. And, of course, as can be said with any novel idea, there is much about personalized learning that can be lost during implementation (as I've said before, school districts are often hospice for good ideas). Still, my position is, "who will you believe, the negative research or your lying eyes"?

A Glimpse into the Future

Besides Mr. Pai's classroom, I saw firsthand how student-centered learning pushes young people to find their pace and rhythm in school on a visit to Summit Sierra School in Seattle, WA. Students there were able to show me their learning plans with easy-to-understand displays showing their progress toward the academic goals they set for themselves (with help from educators and parents).

With that in mind, for now, I'm a believer. As I see it, research and experience support me more than they don't.

Resources for Further Exploration

Here's more on gamification in education: Gamification in Education

Here's more on the research on personalized learning: Research on Personalized Learning

Join the Conversation

So, what do you think: is personalized learning and gamification a fact or fad? Let me know on Twitter @citizenstewart.