Flow in the Classroom

This week and next week in our Using Digital and Social Media in Education class, we are discussing gaming in the classroom.  I used to be much more of a gamer than I am now.  I wasn't much into the World of Warcraft or anything like that, but I did enjoy playing video games with my dad and brother when I was growing up.  My husband and I have three different gaming systems at home now, but we unfortunately don't get a lot of time to play them.  I remember playing Crash Bandicoot and Mario growing up (and now on the Wii), and even Roller Coaster Tycoon on the computer, and being engrossed in the game for what could have been for hours. Time seemed to fly, and I always wanted to do that "one more level," or get passed that spot I was having difficulties with.  As I learned in my readings this week, this experience was called Flow.

I have heard and read about the concept of Flow before. A few years ago, I read "Drive" by Daniel Pink and he discussed Flow in there, too.  According to authors like Daniel Pink and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow is "when a person is completely involved in what he or she is doing, when the concentration is very high, when the person knows moment by moment what the next steps should be." (Edutopia interview with Csikszentmihalyi) This would be an ideal situation in education, but we don't really see this a lot in schools, unless it's maybe in a music or art class.  Most kids don't really get that Flow experience during a traditional math class. As I said before, I experienced Flow while gaming, and one idea that many have suggested to get students into the state of Flow is to introduce gaming into the classroom.

I see the perks of gaming in the classroom, and I also see the downsides to it as well. One of the benefits would be the immediate feedback.  In a game, you know if you're doing the right thing or not immediately.  This would be good in the classroom so that students know if they are correct or not right away instead of having to wait to get a graded assignment back. This is why games like Kahoot are so popular. It is a game, but also provides immediate feedback.  If you were to introduce a true gaming system in a class, however, a lot of students are not gamers, so it might be difficult for them to be excited about this way of learning. I've seen this with one of my colleagues' classes. She has tried to introduce Classcraft in one of her science classes, but the students weren't really buying into it and getting excited about it.  I think it might depend on the students and their personalities for how well gaming would work in the classroom.

Gaming and Flow are all about motivation. Flow would be more of an intrinsic motivator, while gaming is more extrinsic (at least to start) then could move into the intrinsic motivator if you experience Flow within the gaming.  Either way, it's motivation, and that is why gaming is becoming more popular in the classroom.  It's a way to motivate students to learn.  Some students may not be comfortable with the complete gaming experience, but I think introducing some of the parts of gaming into the classroom, like the badge system/"leveling up," could be a good motivator for some students.

What are your thoughts about gaming in the classroom and the Flow experience?