Gaming and Education

an interview with Ash Brandin

Please tell us a bit about your background and work.

I'm Ash Brandin (they/them) a middle school teacher and librarian. Outside of my day job, I run the Instagram and Substack @TheGamerEducator, where I help caregivers better understand and manage their family's relationship with technology.

How would you define "gamification" and why is it such a powerful tool in education?

I think what true gamification is, is when something feels motivating, immersive, and captivating, much like a (video) game.

I think what gamification has unfortunately come to mean for most people and particularly ed tech companies, is "let's reward users with badges, stickers, or collectibles for doing academic tasks".

I believe the former is deeply powerful but extremely hard to do, because as anyone who has played a deeply entertaining game will know, you are motivated to work hard, persevere, and you often end the experience with a set of skills you didn't when you started. I believe the latter is often less educational and less motivating than traditional education.

What role can gamification and tech play in reaching students with diverse learning styles or different ability levels?

If we're talking about the true idea of gamification—making learning feel motivating and immersive as opposed to rewarding kids for completion—it allows kids to tap into the psychological elements that make gaming motivating. Namely: Competency, autonomy, and relating to other people (Self Determination Theory, Deci and Ryan).

If you're able to take a subject and learn about it in a way that works for your brain and feel a sense of power and control, that is very different than a lot of traditional education.

Some critics argue that relying on points, badges, and other extrinsic rewards in gamified learning can overshadow true engagement and intrinsic motivation. What are your thoughts on this concern?

I agree completely! Gamification has become synonymous with this type of extrinsic motivation and to say I dislike it is an understatement.

Think of a game—board game, video game, app, etc.—that you really enjoy. What do you enjoy about it? Is it immersive? Challenging? Entertaining? Community driven? Structured? Open ended?

Now ask yourself: do you enjoy the game because it rewards you with badges? Points? If it gives you something like points, is that the reason you play it? Chances are you said no. And yet, this is what "Gamification" often becomes because it's much easier to reward someone than it is to design a game with educational content intrinsically integrated into it.

Could you walk us through an example of a lesson or activity that successfully integrated a game into the curriculum?

Integrating a game is not the same thing as making something feel game like in structure, so, a common example I use is an "achievement" style structure. Now, if people are familiar with achievements they may think "those are just points! It's a reward!" but the key with achievements is that they are NOT required. Achievements are meta-level; they are things that you can do within the game that may increase your enjoyment or your competency but they are by definition not required.

I've used an achievement structure in classrooms to great effect: I could tailor the achievements to have some that were more perfunctory, with the goal of simply building connection between myself and individual students. I had others that were more exhaustive or difficult, and aligned with what we were learning.

Even though they weren't required, if students achieved them, they felt success, they tended to do better on the assessments because they'd practiced the skills through achievements, but because achievements aren't required, there was no fear of failure.

For a parent or teacher who’s never tried gamification, what are some simple first steps they can take at home or in the classroom?

Pay attention to what your kids like to play, and ask them about it. What do they feel when they play? In control? Free? Connected?

A kid who loves Minecraft may love the power and control that comes from being able to do or try anything you want. A kid who loves Mario Kart may love knowing exactly what the goal is and working to improve in a specific way. These are huge insights to our kids' minds and personalities!

If I know my kid loves to see what they can build and design in Minecraft, then that tells me they are creative and like to tinker, and I can find ways to harness that in other activities outside of the digital world.

How can parents or educators vet games for quality, educational value, and age-appropriateness before recommending them to kids?

Three ways:

1. Play it yourself. This takes more time but the secret advantage to this is that you are the first to play it and thus the first to see the settings menu. That means you can look at the parental controls to either make changes or get a sense of what the game allows, before your kids ever see it.

2. Watch someone play it online. Search YouTube for "[name of game] getting started" and watch someone play for 10-15 minutes. If all they're doing is attacking others, chatting online, name calling, etc. then that tells you that might be a common behavior in the game.

3. Search for it on Common Sense Media. This is the easiest but doesn't give you first hand experience.

How do you advise parents and educators to encourage respectful interactions in online gaming while also managing potential bullying?

The same way you would in real life. If you're ever unsure how to handle something digital, take the digital out of it. You overhear something unkind being said in a game: how would you handle it if the kids were all in your living room playing a board game? And make it clear to your kids that you handle it the same way as in person interactions because the things said online ARE real, and thus have real world impact.

What are some early indications that a child or teen might be developing an unhealthy relationship with gaming or technology? What should we do if we notice these warning signs?

We want kids to have gaming and tech be one part of their lives, but if gaming provides something that kids can ONLY get from gaming or tech, then they will seek gaming and tech every time they want to feel that thing.

A kid who "hung out" with friends in Fortnite in 2021 due to Covid might still want to play Fortnite as their main way of socializing because that's how they built up the skill of social play. We don't want to remove that completely, necessarily, but if we notice that's the only way they tend to be able to socialize, then we need to help them find alternatives. This could start as simply as inviting a friend over so they can play Fortnite together in the same room, and then slowly scaffolding from there.

I go into this in much more depth in my upcoming book, Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family which comes out on August 26 but you can preorder now.

How do you see gamified education evolving, and what emerging tools or trends are you most excited about that might benefit students?

I wouldn't say I'm excited, per se, but the trend of generative AI being used by ed tech companies in products and software that millions of students are using is something I think caregivers need to be aware of. These programs cost school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and because of their price they replace things like hands on manipulatives or text books, thus making schools further tech reliant.

But they also are using student input to improve these AI tools, promising more individualized education. The irony is: individualized education is what human teachers are best at providing, IF they are given adequate staffing, paraprofessional support, adequate materials, and adequate plan time.

If you notice your child is doing more and more online at school, go to a PTA or school board meeting and ask how this is decided, how do they know it works, how much is it costing, and how do they know it is better than an adequately staffed and funded classroom?

Connect with Ash Brandin

You can follow Ash on Instagram, subscribe to their Substack, or visit their website.

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