Gamification in Education

Written on Sunday, December 18, 2018

Participating in the Hive Summit this summer (2018) was pretty awesome. Thanks to Ryan Read, I learn about the summit and am glad that I registered. I have been teaching for many years and have used a variety of activities in my classroom to engage students, whether it be group activities, technology, and/or presentations. 

One of the first Hive Summits I listened to was one put out by Michael Matera who spoke on gamification! As I watched the presentation, I had to chuckle. What surprised me was that I have been gamifying without knowing it. Since I started teaching, I have always used some form of gaming for my classroom to engage students. During my internship at Edgewood High School in Madison, WI, I created my own games for my Accounting class. They were created by using poster board, markers and card stock. The first type of game I made was called, "Accounting Pursuit". The game challenged students in their overall knowledge of accounting and business terminologies and transactions for Accounting. Where did I come up with the idea? My sister, who was and is a math and science teacher. She created various types of games for her students, which they loved!

During my internship, my adviser was excited about these games. She thought they were great! She was an awesome adviser and her influence on me was fantastic. She encouraged me at every level to incorporate new ideas into the classroom. I even created games for her classes as well.

My next teaching job did not see gaming in the same manner. The private school I was teaching in frowned upon Accounting pursuit and any other type of game that I introduced into my classroom. They did not believe that gamifying was productive or educational, after all, we were suppose to be a "college-bound" school. My point here is that gaming in the classroom has not always been accepted as a productive and educational tool. I am glad to see that the idea of "gamifying" is changing, and that teachers and administrators are now seeing it as a constructive and engaging way to increase student engagement and knowledge.

If you have not introduced gamification into your classroom, I would highly recommend it. Take the risk to try something new! However, find the type of games that you enjoy...your enthusiasm for the game will ignite enthusiasm for your students. If you have not added games to your classroom due to technology issues, create your own...either way, students do get engaged in the learning process through gamification whether it comes through technology or through a board game.

Today, in my Accounting class, I use Monopoly. The students are engaged and they are using "real-life" accounting situations to understand accounting principles and concepts. To play the game, students start off with a general journal. I first want them to keep track of their accounting transactions--their buying and selling of real estate. I don't have them focus too much on the correct names for accounts, that will happen at the next step. The goal here is to get them to pay attention to how they are spending money, and at the end of the game, how to discern their profits and losses as well as to keep track of their assets.

After we learn about journal entries and chart of accounts, students create their own Chart of Accounts for their monopoly real estate business. This is a challenge to them. This is really the first time they have to determine what type of accounts they will need for their business. As they play the game, they have to problem solve by figuring out the account they should use, how it is classified, and the type of balance it should have. Then they need to add it to their Chart of Accounts based on classification, and then record the entry in their general journal. They create their accounts as they play the game.

After they have their Chart of Accounts created, the next step in their Monopoly enterprise is to open up their General Ledger accounts with the various accounts they have created. At this stage, as they play the game and record their journal entries into the general journal, they now have to "post" from the general journal to the appropriate accounts in the general ledger.

To determine their profit and lost, I have the students create their worksheet. They determine whether or not their general ledger is in balance by recording their balances into their Trial Balance. From there, they determine their income statement and balance sheet sections in order to determine their profit and loss.

The last step of the process is to teach the students how to create their financial statements for their business at the end of the game. The whole process is quite interesting to observe. This entire process does not have to be completed in the same class period. When they return the next class period, you can have them continue where they left off from the last class period.

Because our high school is on block scheduling, playing Monopoly works well. We have 77 minutes to play the game. This is amply time for them to get pretty far into the game.

I have found that this game is a great learning tool for students to develop some "real-life" situations for accounting.

I also now incorporate technology into my classroom. Since I teach more technology classes than business classes, I use various tech tools for learning. Some good software to use for gamification is Quizlet and Kahoot. Quizlet is great because it offers a variety of ways for students to review--they can listen, create quizzes/tests, do matching or play games. Kahoot is a fun, interactive game that lets students compete with each other. I normally give the top five students a bonus for finishing in the top five. What is great about Kahoot is that it engages students to review so they do well in the game. The bonus here is that they also do well on their quizzes. Another software out there for gaming is "purposegames.com" Excellent site as well and is easy to use. This software allows you to create tournaments that students can participate in.

When all is said and done, I hope you take the time to work in some gamification, whether it be your own creation or you get a little assistance through the use technology. Happy gamfiying!