Recently, I was watching a Ted Talk where Jane McGonigal (2010) was arguing for the latent potential of videogames to change the world. Her argument was that we have a generation of expert gamers who are busy working on virtual problems that are highly complex, require focused attention, and are inherently engaging--but are somewhat meaningless in the "real world." Thus, she proposes that we find ways to make games applicable to real world problems (McGonigal, 2010). While Gonigal (2010) is proposing full-fledged online gaming environments, such as her creation of "World Without Oil" (a game that asks participants to simulate what the world would be like without oil and to adjust their real lives accordingly), there maybe smaller steps we can take in online education to use the strengths of games to teach and engage students.

Assuredly we all have played classroom Jeopardy or other such learning games, but these types of games are what James Paul Gee (2003), the author of "What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy," would term as less effective. This is because these types of games decontextualize the learning itself rather than integrating the overall learning into some kind of gaming strategy or environment. In this way, Gee (2003) agrees with McGoniga's (2010) approach that an entire virtual environment that immerses the learner is better than one that decontextualizes learning into small snippets of games. However, just because it is hard to convert our entire online learning environment into one integrated game there are still ways to incorporate principles of what some call "gamification" into our classrooms.

Recently, Volkswagen started an initiative called "The Fun Theory" (www.thefuntheory.com) that challenged people to come up with ways to change behavior (and have people learn things) through invoking the principle that people do some activities simply because they are fun. The solutions that emerged were novel and included an idea to get children to keep their safety belts on inside of cars. The simple solution was to only allow the in-car entertainment system to play when the seatbelts are buckled. While this may seem far from education, the "out of the box thinking" can be applied to online education by finding ways to make learning environments more fun and by making non-game activities more game-like. Thus, by following a simple formula boring activities can be remade into engaging pursuits.

To make the mundane more interesting gamificaton experts call on a model termed SAPS. This model uses various techniques to motivate people to act and be engaged by gamifying tasks, actions, or environments. "S" in this model stands for status. This theory argues that if you give people real or perceived status through gamification they are more likely to engage in your target activities. For example, the social media app Foursquare uses status by allowing people who visit local restaurants or businesses frequently to become the "mayor" of that establishment. Next, "A" stands for access. The idea here is that through making activities more game-like and offering exclusive access as a by-product people will be motivated to engage in the desired activity. We can see this principle applied in LinkedIn's group feature where you have to request the privileged to belong to certain groups. "P" is for power. By creating situations where people can become "class leaders" for example, the idea of power within a group or community can drive behavior and learning. Last, "S" stands for stuff. This is the traditional motivator, but comes at the end of the formula for a reason. The SAPS theory posits that the previous motivators are better at creating intrinsic motivation than providing "stuff" or rewards (Zichermann, 2010).

The SAPS theory is not new, but it is making its way into the social media fabric of modernity quickly and has begun to bleed into the domain of education. The possibilities of application are diverse and I hope motivating for the new generation of digital natives- who are both students and teachers.

References

Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

McGonigal, Jane (2010). Gaming can make a better world. http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Zichermann, Gabe (2010). Cash is for saps. http://gamification.co/2010/10/18/cash-is-for-saps/