Presentation about gamification for English language teaching by Deborah Healey and Kai Liu from Oregon Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ORTESOL) Conference, Oct 12, 2013. Includes links to the companion website.

1. Gamification: Hype or
Useful Teacher Tool?
Deborah Healey
American English Institute/Dept. of Linguistics,
University of Oregon
Kai Liu
Dept. of Linguistics, University of Oregon
sites.google.com/site/gamificationforelteachers/

2. Agenda
 Brief intro to gamification
 What is it?
 Game mechanics
 Try it yourself – stations; classroom
applications
 Debrief
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

3. Games vs. gamification
They’re not the same
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

4. Classroom activities
We’ll talk about gamifying these later
 Responding to questions about a 10-minute
video clip
 Memorizing vocabulary for a weekly quiz
 Highlighting the transition words in a reading
 Doing a workbook exercise about the past
tense
 Doing a presentation about a favorite vacation
 Writing a compare/contrast paragraph.
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

5. What’s a game?
 A system with rules, some sort of
challenge, feedback of some sort,
interaction, fun, and often with an
emotional response.
(from many authors)
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

6. Gamification??
 Gamification is adding elements of
games and gaming to regular activities
that we may not normally think of as
games.
 Business
 Training
 Education
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

7. Kapp, 2012: Elements
 Game mechanics –points, levels, and
badges (PBL), scoring, time constraints
 Game thinking – competition,
cooperation, exploration, storytelling
 Aesthetics – a visually or otherwise
interesting environment that creates a
different “feel” to the activity (pp.9-11)
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

8. Why do we care?
 Demographics
 Digital natives
 Engagement
 Extrinsic => intrinsic motivation
 It’s our world
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

9. Teachers use these
 Cascading Information Theory –
breaking up information into bits
 Curriculum in teaching
 Achievements – where learners have
accomplished something relative to others
 “Achievers” – I’m better than others
 Community Collaboration – working together
to solve a problem or do a task.
 Group work in teaching
 “Socializers”
Images from http://www.gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

10. More that we use now
 Points – giving numerical value for
actions
 Grades in teaching
 Loss Aversion – avoiding punishment
 Grading, often
 Behavioral Momentum – the
tendency to keep doing something
 Fun Once, Fun Always – classroom routines
Images from http://www.gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

11. What we could add
 Countdown– having only a certain
amount of time to do something
 Homework, tests, activities
 Levels – more points = more rewards
 Start at 0 and add points to grades
 Quests – give activities a larger focus
 Check this later: Penny Arcade video
www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education
Images from http://www.gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

12. What we could add
 Progression – gradual success,
made visible
 Chart of reading speed, other
 Ownership– control of something
 Publishing, learner choices
Images from http://www.gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

13. Try it - stations
Explanation – see the handout
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

14. Project/task-based learning
 Blissful productivity – joy in work
 Discovery/Exploration
 “Explorers”
 Epic meaning – doing something big
 Projects outside the classroom, audience
 Quests/Challenges – overcoming
obstacles
 Virality – working with others
Images from http://www.gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

15. Debrief
 What did you do? What do you think?
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu

16. Q&A
Thanks!
sites.google.com/site/gamificationforelteachers/
dhealey@uoregon.edu
http://www.deborahhealey.com
kliu4@uoregon.edu
© 2013 D. Healey, dhealey@uoregon.edu