Gamification: Turning Activities in Daily Living into Games

Gamification is a term I heard of alongside with "edufication". Herewith my understanding of these two concepts:

Gamification is a process of turning non-game playing activities in daily living into game-like activities. The root word, gamify, means turning something into games.
In contrast, edufication is a process of turning non-education matters--mainly formal and semi-formal--into educational matters. The root word, edufy, means turning something into education matters.
The relationship between gamification, edufication and game-based learning (GBL) could be explained in a funnel diagram:



Both gamification and edufication need subject matter contents, and they can complement or even support each other. For example, car driving activity can be gamified into a car driving game, and the game can then be edufied to be used in a GBL practice. The subject matter contents of the car driving activity, including fundamental car mechanics (knowledge), manuvearing a car (skills), and driving etiquette (attitudes), can be restructured to form the six structural elements of games, as shown in the following diagram:

How to gamify and edufy? Different game experts would take different approaches. To me, I will first deconstruct the subject matter contents into measurable or operationable units, and then classify these units into the six elements of games. To achieve these tasks, one may need the knowledge and skills of instructional systems design (ISD) for the deconstruction, and game design and development (GDD) knowledge and skills for the reconstruction. In other words, this involves two fields of studies.

Once the game is ready for playing, then it can either be used for teacher-less GBL practice or teacher-led GBL practice. And GBL would be a field of study that combines ISD and GDD.

Matt in Knowledge Nation Inc. introduced me to a fantastic gadget for gamification--the FitBit, in which it claims to be able to fit (read as gamify here) fitness into your day.

Prior my trip to San Francisco, I've signed up for a free online Gamification course, offered by Prof Kevin Werbach from University of Pennsylvania. The course will be started on 27 Aug 2012. I am eager to learn about Werbach's views on gamification.