Gamify: use game mechanics to stimulate student engagement

In this episode of the École branchée Educational Meetings, we discusses classroom gamification with Marie-Andrée Croteau, assistant principal at the Collège de Montréal.

The “École branchée educational meetings” are podcast interviews with school stakeholders from here and elsewhere. In this episode, our collaborator (and concept designer), Marc-André Girard, talks to Marie-Andrée Croteau (@mandreecp), assistant director at the Collège de Montréal, who is very interested in the gamification of learning.

From the outset, she explains what gamification is, a word in which we notably find "gamification". In the classroom, this involves using the mechanics of the game to stimulate student engagement. "It is a very large subject which is in full development", she explains.

Among the characteristics of a fun educational activity, she names frequent feedback, the possibility for the student to start over and improve, and the fact that it promotes the organization of ideas (what is sometimes called executive functions). Gamifying the class leads, she recalls, to positive motivation, collaborative socialization and participatory productivity (in a team). These are elements that we are trying to develop to better prepare young people for the world of tomorrow.

Why do you want to gamify your class? She sums it up as follows: “All this in order to have a student who will be an ultra committed and confident employee; at least that is the ideal we are proposing. "

For Marie-Andrée Croteau, it goes without saying that digital tools give a very big hand to set up these mechanisms. For example, they make it possible to do interactive questionnaires, create or have students create games, issue badges, etc.

For more on the subject, also consult the April 2016 issue of the magazine École branchée, whose main theme is the gamification of learning and in which Marie-Andrée Croteau signs a dossier which summarizes her words.

Gamify: use game mechanics to stimulate student engagement
Marc-André Girard speaks with Marie-Andrée Croteau
Assistant Director at the College of Montreal
Download the file (.mp3 format)

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