Gamification in education, minding a concept

With the dissemination and popularization of games, it is noticeable their presence in everyday life, and education does not have opposed to making use of mechanisms that referring the engagement present in this methodology in order to promote educational improvements. This use assumes that the games, like the videogame, can contextualize the information to the student, this is because the phases present in the games end up respecting the level of the student, which, through the error and the possibility of the correct, does not frustrate when attempting to Improve your skills to pass the phase.

Based on the assumption of games-based learning, gamification has become increasingly an object of study and application in the educational environment, aiming at the engagement and motivation of students so that they can Learn.

Having its emergence in the business sphere, gamification has become popularized and gained space in the educational environment in Brazil, being initially defined as the process of using the mechanics, style and thinking of games, in a non-game context, as a means to Solve problems and engage people (ZICHERMANN; LINDER, 2010), gamification implies a proposal that goes a little beyond the implementation and use of games in educational activities, without demerit this practice.

According to our theoretical and empirical studies and investigations in the field, making use of gamification in the educational and academic environment is a way of providing the participants with the experience the opportunity to be part of something in which they feel Engaged and motivated, by the trend that they will be subjected "in an abstract challenge, defined by clear rules, interacting and accepting feedbacks" (ALVES, 2015, p. 27), promoting learning.

In view of the purpose of engagement, Gamification considers the use of easily perceptible elements in games such as narrative, feedback system, rewards system, conflict, cooperation, competition, clear objectives and rules, Levels, trial and error, fun, besides interaction and interactivity (ZICHERMANN and CUNNINGHAM, 2011).

For Kapp (2012), Gamification is an application of the mechanics, aesthetics and concept of games, with the aim of providing engagement among people, motivating actions, encouraging learning and promoting problem solving. However, our understanding is that, in the educational context, gamification must go beyond engagement and motivation, as well as the intention that learning is "fun".

This concept of fun or animation has provoked a series of interrogations, especially when the focus of learning is lost and techniques, methodologies or games are used only for fun, forgetting that in these moments occurs Learning, including from a tangential perspective. Thus, we propose a deepening of the concept, delimiting the following definition:

Gamification is the process of using mechanics, style and the thought of games, in a non-game context, as a means to engage and motivate people, aiming at learning through interaction between people, with technologies and with the environment.

It is observed that, in the context of this concept of gamification, the term technology goes beyond what is commonly understood, relating to computational systems. Here the concept of technology must be understood from the considerations of Pinto (2005), which allows us a critical look at the technology in a dialectical relationship with man, who produces it, transforms it and transforms it into its production and use in context.

Thus, having as reference the context of the emergence of gamification and the objectives of engagement between subjects, in whatever scope, it is considerable to define that there is no provision for the creation of a game or a specific virtual environment for the Gamification happens, including with a certain educational end. What is possible and expected is that all the resources and possibilities that games present to solve real-life problems are incorporated in the context of planning and execution of gamification. Thus, the choice of key elements will depend on the objectives, that is, the purpose with which the gamification is to be employed.

This strategy, according to Ladley (2011) can be guided by the reward, which would make use of the medals or points (PBL – Points, Badges and Leaderboards), or otherwise motivate the people involved to give meaning to their characters in accordance With the context in which they are inserted.

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