GAMIFICATION

—Motivation: to stimulate interest in those tasks or learning that may be more complicated or unattractive. Doing it in a playful way facilitates the internalization of concepts.

—Cooperation: greater capacity for conflict resolution, cooperation and teamwork. This, in turn, encourages socialization among the peer group.

—Concentration: something common in any game and that is not always easy to achieve with young students.

—Improvement of cognitive abilities: development of memory, of logical thinking.

—Improvement of psychomotor skills: greater visual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, among others.

—Digital literacy: this first contact with computers and new technologies allows one to become familiar with the most basic levels of digital literacy.

—Adaptation to each student: gamification allows adaptation to the needs and rhythm of each student. Personalization facilitates learning more tailored to diversity.

—Better use of time in class.

One of the fundamental disadvantages is the high cost involved, since the production of audiovisual educational materials in accordance with the quality principles of gamification and the need for a total renovation of the educational material and tools used represents a significant outlay.

Possibility of being distracted by the game and the consequent loss of time / productivity.

Gamification is very good to develop a whole series of skills, but others such as speaking are very difficult to develop.

Danger for the formation of values. If it is not well applied and tutored, gamification can lead to excessive competitiveness.

The balance between playfulness and training is very difficult to achieve, and if the activity loses its educational character, it will be unproductive.

In order to obtain the rewards, all players must assume the same objectives, which makes it difficult to accommodate different interests and learning styles.

The possibility of creating a temporary motivation. Motivation based exclusively on winning prizes is diminished once it is no longer something new.

Gamification is a learning technique that transfers the mechanics of games to the educational-professional field in order to achieve better results.

One of the main keys when applying it is that the students have perfectly assimilated the dynamics of the game that will be carried out.

The three elements of gamification:

The dynamics are related to the motivation of the participants: they explain how the player behaves and the needs that the game satisfies.

The mechanics are the basic components of the game, such as the rules, the engine and the operation.

Components are the resources and tools used to design a specific activity. Either an LMS platform or a website specially designed for the gamification process.

Dynamic techniques

They refer to the user's own motivation to play and continue to achieve their goals. Some of the most used dynamic techniques are the following:

Reward: get a deserved benefit

Status: establish yourself at a valued social hierarchical level.

Achievement: as improvement or personal satisfaction.

Competition: for the simple desire to compete and try to be better than others.

Mechanical technique

It is the way to reward the user based on the goals achieved. Some of the most used mechanical techniques are the following:

Accumulation of points: a quantitative value is assigned to certain actions and they are accumulated as they are carried out.

Level escalation: a series of levels are defined that the user must overcome to reach the next one.

Obtaining prizes: as different objectives are achieved, prizes are awarded as a "collection".

Gifts: Goods that are given to the player or players for free upon achieving an objective.

Classifications: classify users based on points or objectives achieved, highlighting the best in a list or ranking.

Challenges: competitions between users, the best gets the points or the prize.

Missions or challenges: manage to solve a challenge and objective set, either alone or as a team.

Game-based learning implies using the functioning and mechanics of the game in an educational context, thus taking advantage of its advantages as a motivating, social and interactive element. To do this, various strategies can be put into practice and the resources made available to us by the Internet can be used.

1. Define a clear goal.

2. Transform the learning of skills and knowledge into play.

3. Set a specific challenge.

4. Establish the rules of the game.

5. Create a system of rewards (badges).

6. Come up with a motivating competition.

7. Set levels of increasing difficulty.