Why gamify the teaching of computer skills in Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) and Computer Science (CS)?
The New British Columbia (BC) Curriculum
The new BC curriculum has endorsed the Computer Science Teacher Association (CSTA) content strands to enable learners to draw from computational concepts, practices, and perspectives in all aspects of their lives (CSTA, 2011). Currently K-12 learners are required to develop a foundation of computer science knowledge, learn new approaches to problem-solving that harness the power of computational thinking and become both users and creators of computing technology. The following video emphasizes the current need for CS education.
Gamification to Teaching CS Education
How to teach CS particularly to those with limited exposure and interest has always been a significant challenge for educators (Behnke, 2015). Fotaris, Mastoras, Leinfellner, and Rosunally (2016) noted that disconnection, disengagement, and alienation are likely the outcomes of deploying traditional approaches for learning computer science. Gamification seems to be an effective alternative within the curriculums’ focus on curricular competencies and creating technology artifacts through a recursive process of learning and mastering challenges. Gamification can support the demonstration of concepts by modeling problem-solving and abstracting from previous knowledge; moreover, it can shorten feedback cycles and show learners that failure is an opportunity for learning, which aligns well with required computational practices (Behnke, 2015).