Hybrid Education: Gamification
Keeping students engaged in the classroom is a challenge. This has become increasingly true in a virtual context and is something that I’ve had to address while teaching 4th and 5th grade students how to code. As our world becomes increasingly virtual there will be more opportunities to get distracted and fatigued by the many digital platforms and tools we’re now so reliant on. Gamification of virtual learning is a compelling approach to combatting digitally begot distraction and fatigue even as it opens up new avenues for student engagement and hybrid education.
Minecraft’s Hour of Code (HOC) is one such approach to gamification of coding. Many kids love Minecraft and the HOC platform makes it easy to practice implementing basic coding logic while feeling like you’re completing mini adventures. The students I’ve taught in my programming classes loved it and it provided a launching off point for diving into more complex and real code.
The ease of use and increased engagement that the HOC platform provides is one of the reasons that I’m working with them and Million Solar Stars (MSS) to gamify designing solar systems for schools. As part of our work to teach STEM and engage students internationally in learning about renewable energy, we think that students will have fun competing with one another to design the best solar system for their school. This challenge will have multiple rounds of design and refinement in order to make the designs increasingly realistic and provide a segue for students to start learning about designing with professional Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. As students, teachers, and parents become more engaged with these design challenges, there will be ample opportunities for education about solar systems, design principles, and how students’ work relates to the real world. Furthermore, we hope that this work will prime these communities for becoming interested in solar energy. MSS aims to harness this momentum and connect developers, schools, and sponsors in order to bring students’ solar school designs into reality. From designing solar PV systems in HOC to assembling and racing solar powered cars or engaging with a school wide solar design project, students embark on a journey of learning that starts with virtual gamification and transforms into real world projects.
This approach to hybrid education can, and should, be applied to more than coding or solar related topics. As the world becomes increasingly digital, virtual, and remote there will be more opportunities to employ this kind of hybrid education. I’m excited to be doing this kind of work with MSS as well as the CU Boulder STEAM Alumni Group, and look forward to working with more organizations to champion this kind of hybrid education.
I’d love to continue the discussion in the comments about existing kinds of hybrid education approaches and how these can be improved going forward.
Thanks for reading.
