An Outbreak of Learning!

Today I nearly destroyed the planet. After initially failing to infect the entire planet with my deadly virus, I eventually worked out how to best spread the virus before beginning its destructive path to total annihilation. Fortunately, a few of my students did manage to destroy the planet so all in all it was a successful day.

The experience I described above came about due to my interest in the notion of gamification. Gamification is the process of using computer games, such as apps or fully fledged X-box games, to teach students. While this may sound like an excuse to play computer games in class, the upside to a proper implementation of gamification can be enormous.

I decided to try gamification with my Year 8 History class. We are studying Medieval Europe and I thought that the Plague might be a fun way to experiment with computer games. I had heard of this app called "Infect the World" and had seen some students play it in their spare time. After researching the app, and to my delight discovering it was free for a lite version, I decided that it fitted the criteria for good gamification:

1) Good content

2) Game joined seamlessly to content

3) Good game

Firstly, the Plague is the gory kind of topic that boys love because if they aren't infecting the room with their own odors, they often complain about the ones their friends make. Plus a quick inspection of any locker room towards the end of the year will reveal a plethora of never before seen bacteria and viruses fermenting in left over lunches and snacks.

Secondly, the game itself involved choosing the traits and environmental conditions to help spread your virus around the world. From sores to coughs, vomiting and diarrhea, these were all the classic symptoms of the Black Death and Great Plague that formed the historical content of the lesson. Moreover, the environmental conditions they could create in the game using heat and cold allowed them to mimic the conditions that caused these major outbreaks in history.

Finally, the game itself is reasonably fun to play. Once you get your head around the way to manipulate your virus and the frustration of quarantines and cures, it can be quite addictive. In fact, I originally only intended to play the game with the class for 30 minutes but extended this to 50 minutes because on my second turn I was actually winning and beating the game. This is even more surprising considering the relatively simple display but a dose of healthy competition in the class definitely helped.

The biggest reward however came in the wrap up to the lesson. After playing the game for almost an hour, I dreaded finishing up to do some basic research on the Black Death and Great Plague so that they could complete some scaffold summaries. However, the experience of playing the game made the students more willing to do this grunt work and when I showed them the connection between the viruses they had created and the actual plagues they were genuinely excited. As one student said to me at the end of the lesson, "Before I didn't get how the plague could spread but now I can see the ways that it did in real life." Moreover, the use of some Venn diagrams and bespoke scaffolds allowed me to effectively link the game with the historical content.

Thus, in summary, I would suggest everyone give gamification a go. Finding the right game for the content can be tricky, right now I am toying with the idea of a combat game to teach the Crusades, but when it fits nicely the results are spectacular. It is especially nice to see the kids that are usually so bored get into the game and furthermore see their eyes shine when they start to make the connections to the class content. But most importantly, I need to stop writing this blog so I can go back to infecting the world - my learning journey never ends.