Teachers can use game mechanics in a non-game environment (gamification), or they can consider playing a game as an option to learn content. In the first case, adding elements inspired by games to the classroom environment allows teachers to create a motivating atmosphere for the learning of social sciences, geography, and history. The second case is directly related to games that “teach” content through making decisions and observation of consequences. With a focus on elements, benefits, strategies, and some of the most important resources to introduce gamification and game-based learning in social science education, the authors highlight student motivation and learning of content and skills. Although gamification is not a new concept, it can be considered that the technological development and the recognition of its didactic possibilities have extended the educational experiences in a new way, contributing significantly to education.
TopIntroduction
The development of technologies and their inclusion in educational contexts, in addition to acquiring a new dimension, is expanding possibilities. However, we are not facing a new phenomenon either in the company or in education. In this sense, the beginning of gamification was closely linked to business context and the most remote origin is nineteenth century. One of the first known experiences of gamification starts with the creation of S&H Green Stamps company in 1896. This company was sponsored by Sperry and Hutchinson stood out between the 30s and 60s of the 20th century and sold stamps to retailers. Subsequently, they gave to customers rewards to loyalty in establishments. Customers stuck prints in collector books that S&H provided for free, generating customer loyalty evolved into so-called “affinity” programs or “loyalty reward” programs (Tikkanen, s/f).
In general, gamification transfers the mechanics of games to the educational and professional context in order to achieve better results. Rewards of concrete actions improve motivation in the process of knowledge internalization and skills development. In other words, gamification:
(…) seeks to stimulate participation and involvement in an activity through the stimulus derived from the challenge linked to obtaining achievements and satisfaction related to receiving rewards throughout the game. For this reason, it has been progressively incorporated into classrooms, trying to stimulate learning. The dynamics will work best when it allows to establish a progression so that each time a challenge is overcome, a new one is posed. The progression of challenges and the establishment of the constant incentive system constitute two important difficulties for the design of gamified activities in the classroom (Rivero, 2017: 5).
Regarding Game-Based Learning, in recent years, the use of video games has been expanded in different age spectra. The report “The New Faces of Gaming” of the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) (2017), and through the GameTrack survey (ISFE and Ipsos Connect), has covered the European markets of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. This report confirmed that around three quarters of young people between 6 and 24 played video games. Moreover, the popularization of the use of smartphones and tablets has contributed in recent years to broaden the age spectrum of the players. In this way, users from 6 to 64 years consider themselves as players (gamers) from 8% in 2012 to 16% in 2016. Technological development is allowing the immersion in playable experiences and the educational possibilities of videogames to be extended with the support of different peripherals and applications. An example of this is in augmented reality, an emerging techno-social trend that has demonstrated its practical effectiveness in both university and non-university training contexts (Cabero, Leiva, Moreno, Barroso & López Meneses, 2017).
In this chapter we will focus on elements, benefits, strategies and some of the most important resources in order to introduce or improve gamification and game-based learning in the teaching of Social Sciences, including Geography and History. After reviewing the main strategies to introduce gamification and Game-Based Learning in our Social Sciences classes, we present specific resources that will allow teachers to develop the aforementioned strategies in order to motivate students and improve the development of classes to build competencies, facilitating the learning of contents and the reaching of curricular objectives. Those resources for gamification include creation, management and use of flashcards, games, quizz games, maps, resources, quests, challenges, simulations, presentations, infographics, posters, catalogs, images, playsheets, etc.
TopElements And Strategies For Gamification And Game-Based Learning
Teachers and game designers can fail to establish differences between Serious Games, Game-Based Learning or Gamification. As Ayén (2017) indicates, Serious Games start from a real problem and include it in a game to make it more fun and easier to understand. In Game-Based Learning learners play games (digital or non-digital) in order to learn contents (Keeler, 2014). Examples of resources for Game-Based Learning are: World Peace Game Foundation, World of Warcraft in School, Minecraft Edu or Portal 2. Gamification is not a game, but it applies the techniques and elements of games in order to motivate, encourage changes in attitudes, improve processes, etc. It is not based only on rewards, points or rankings, but implies a pre-action analysis process (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled & Nacke, 2011). The main differences between gamification and game-based learning are organizated in table 1.