Abstract

Games are becoming increasingly prevalent in education, both in traditional school settings and beyond. In this Disputatio webtext, we look specifically at one application of games for pedagogical use: gamification. Rather than introducing a pre-exisiting game into the learning spaces, gamification adds elements of games into educational (or other) spaces. After a brief exploration of the debates surrounding the term, we present two successful uses of gamification. The first, C’s the Day, is a game run as part of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. We discuss C’s the Day from the perspective of a creator (Wendi) and winner (Kyle), roles that are present in any game but which also complicate issues of agency and community in the particular rhetorical situations of gameplay. Our second example, FYC’s the Day, is based on the original C’s the Day game and was part of the instructor orientation at the University of South Florida.

Next: What is Gamification?

Wendi Sierra is a doctoral student at North Carolina State University, studying in the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media program. Her dissertation explores the pedagogical use of gaming in the composition classroom. She is a keeper of the sparkleponies.

Kyle D. Stedman is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida, where he served as community manager of the First-Year Composition program for three years. His dissertation is on the rhetoric of sound and the music composition process. He has earned two sparkleponies: Victor and Marc.