There’s something about Gamification
Gamification has been one of the hottest methods for teaching and learning in the past
few years. Its effects promote engagement and motivation to boost even the most reluctant student. Any subject can be gamified. But doing so alone takes time, effort and oodles of creativity.
Opinions on the future of Gamification are, however, divided. According to a recent survey at Pew Research Center, quoted in Brian Burke in Gamification 2020: What Is the Future of Gamification? over half of the people surveyed - 53% - believe gamification will be globally widespread by 2020, while 42% predicted that by 2020, gamification will not evolve to be a larger trend “except in specific realms.”
Gamification first appeared on Google Trends in September 2010, five years ago. Now, five years on, technologies such as mobile, cloud, social and location-based services have stimulated even greater growth of gamification to date.
Five years from now, once these emerging technologies have reached their peak, with implemented uses such as gesture control, head-mounted displays and augmented reality, they will permit gamification to combine effortlessly with our daily lives on a more human level.
In Gartner's "Hype Cycle for Emerging Energy Technologies, 2012,", gamification was scaled in the Peak of Inflated Expectations, and expected to reach the Plateau of Productivity in 2017-2022. There are risks of entering the Trough of Disillusionment when gamification is poorly implemented; when designers fail to understand game design or player engagement strategies. However, when utilized effectively, with correct game design principles, gamification can have a significant impact in many domains, in some fields, even transformational.