Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 50

Internet Learning
and players who engage in dialogue and
discussion about their favorite game. This
concept of the social gamer is powerful to
consider when thinking through elements
to build into gamified experiences.
Crowdsourcing is one such element
that when brought into gamified experiences
can be used for promoting social learning
and socialization that often surrounds
game environments. Crowdsourcing is often
used in such a way to tap into the collective
intelligence of a group and bring lots of
minds together to think through problems.
To engage players in crowdsourcing in such
a way that it matches the highly social and
collective intelligence nature of gaming affinity
spaces, yet also matches the need of
the gamified experience, it is important to
ensure that the crowdsourcing experience
that is being created has a real-world impact
and connection. It is helpful in these
instances if the player can see that what he
or she is doing actually is making a difference
in the real world.
Properly gamified experiences
should improve the user experience (Deterding,
2011; Nicholson, 2012). Including
elements that improve ownership and
immersion, narrative, feedback loops, and
crowdsourcing, move beyond the simple
concept of badges and points and bring a
deeper experience to the players who are
participating in the gamified experience.
However, it is important to note distinctions
within gamification, and understand
the nuances of gamification, game-based
learning, and even edutainment.
Game-based Learning and Edutainment
Before going further into exploring
how elements of gamification can be
used within educational context, a
deeper exploration of the nuances of how
games in general are used in educational
contexts. Gamification is not edutainment,
nor is it games-based learning. Often
it seems that the spaces of edutainment
and games-based learning get mixed up in
discussions dealing with gamification and
people use the term interchangeably when
they are discussing separate concepts of
edutainment and/or game-based learning.
These three concepts (gamification, gamesbased
learning, and even edutainment) inform
one another, however, it is important
to note that gamification is a system that is
used within the design of a product or curriculum
and it can occur within edutainment
and game-based learning. However, it
is important to note that gamification is not
dependent upon either game-based learning
or edutainment to be developed on its
own, nor does gamification as a system
need to be employed within game-based
learning or edutainment.
Edutainment
To explain further, edutainment was
defined in the 1980's as the use of
entertainment devices or activities
to teach school-based and education subjects
or concepts. A Jeopardy-style game
created about the Renaissance period, Math
Blaster, Where in the World is Carmen San
Diego? and Oregon Trail were all examples
of edutainment that have been used
in schools. Often, but not always, edutainment
includes flashy products created for
the sole purpose of teaching a concept.
Some edutainment products are more effective
than other edutainment products,
however, one thing that should be noted
is that edutainment products generally are
met with disdain from students as nothing
more than a glorified worksheet or activity
that has been put into an electronic
format (Zichermann, 2011). When this
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