Gamification - Video Games

There are many misconceptions about video games such as children becoming more violent because of all the violence related concepts that they have. Even though it has been proven that it does make people more prone to violence, it is only a really small percentage. Despite this negative influence, it has been evident that video games do indeed have benefits as well such as coordination skills and decision making.

Gamification can also be used in classrooms to keep the students engaged and enthusiastic to participate in the learning activies. It is clear to say that millenials carry a cavalier attitude and that they look down upon learning resources. At least through the use of games, they will be more eager about their own learning process. Gamification is an integration of game mechanics and training content striving for learning outcomes. For instance, it is also used in the medical field for prospective surgeons. Thus, game-based learning activates cognitive learning by the students actively processing and producing their learning.

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Thinglink

Thinglink enabled me to create links related to Shakespeare's five most prolific tragedies; Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth in a single post. This will allow students to have quick access to these plays in a single post that is an interactive image which provides basic information about them. The link is below: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1189250669056360450

Duolingo

Duolingo is another popular language learning app and it is the most downloaded one in the world so far. It offers 85 different courses in 24 languages. Gamification is poured into each lesson; your hearts keep your lesson alive and when you answer incorrectly, you lose a heart. If you run out of hearts, you simply just start over again. There's a streak count to motivate you to stay on track by displaying the number of days you spent learning a language in a row. It has in-lesson grading so you can immediately see if your answers are correct or not. Each lesson includes a variety of skills such as speaking, listening and translation etc. with multiple choice challenges. Additionally, it can be easily used in schools as thousands of teachers are already using it for their students' development.

VR - Virtual Reality

''Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.'' (Virtual Reality Society, 2017, https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html) Basically, virtual reality enables you to enter an imaginary world, in which even you can bring to your class for your students to experience learning in a completely different manner. I do agree that there are quite expensive ones which might not be affordable; however, there are also cheap ones (such as the one above) which provides an opportunity to experience VR by using a smartphone with downloaded apps such as Cardboard, Full Dive VR etc. As provided by the second image (the one at the bottom), simply by placing your phone in front of t...

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