ABSTRACT

Early in the 2000s, when the technology of the Internet and increasing access to it increased the public’s expectations for schools to prepare students for the future, teachers and parents envied the determination and grit displayed by their children (and adults alike) to achieve success within video games. The idea that education could be disrupted and turned into a video game prompted the analysis and dissection of games, which provided the field with a smattering of game mechanics that seemed to promise—guarantee, even—prolonged student engagement and motivation. This gamification, or applying game mechanics to (or even merely renaming) non-game elements, like learning tasks, grew in popularity as the world fed so-called digital natives participation trophies and badges. Gamification was a trend before the pandemic, and during the forced mass virtual learning that took place during the pandemic, gamification packages were marketed as seamless ways to engage students remotely. Overworked, well-intentioned teachers at all levels reached for these measures, but rather than turning their courses into video game eutopias of learning, they acted to demotivate students and emphasize busywork. The pandemic did not create these problematic teaching strategies and activities, but it did act to foreground the many issues with gamification.