Emergence of Digitized Gamification as an Educational Tool and the Implications on Digital Literacy and Equity

The phenomenon of gamification has developed into a widely used educational tool over the last sixty years. In that time gamification has evolved from serious games, used to educate military personnel and medical workers, to a tool used to teach a variety of disciplines. The proliferation of gamification is particularly prevalent due to the ease of access and production of games in a digital format. Whether being used in the classroom or being used in daily life as a non-traditional learner, the common man is inundated with information and games that teach. Some games intentionally teach skills, however, even those that aren’t geared towards teaching can teach peripheral skills and values that aren’t easily taught in the classroom. Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine which games and content are going to be positive and helpful to growth and development, and which will not be. One such skill that would be invaluable to teach would be digital literacy, especially in such a digitized world. Thus the question posed here is whether gamification will be a reliable tool to teach digital literacy due to its success being implemented in other disciplines.