Gamification and the Mystery of Time and Space

Gamification is a quickly growing trend, in which an activity is given game elements to turn it into - you guessed it! - a game.  Games can be powerfully motivating, and indeed, gamification is most often used as a motivational strategy: it can be used to hook people on a product or service, to promote behaviors like recycling, or even to motivate students in an educational setting.  Obviously, this last is the one I'm most interested in.

I recently played a game called Mystery of Time and Space (MOTAS), which is an escape the room-style point-and-click game in which players need to manipulate the objects in a locked room in order to escape and move on to the next room.  When the mouse is held over an object, its name appears, and clicking it earns the player a description.



Games like this are often used in classrooms to practice language skills.  MOTAS is especially popular, and there are a number of resources like this one to guide teachers in integrating it into their classrooms.  It is available in a variety of languages, including Spanish, making it a useful tool in any language classroom.

I might employ a lesson in which students must find every object in a room and write a short description for each, with the goal of expanding and practicing vocabulary in a more authentic setting than a textbook can provide.  Once that has been done, students could be given a walkthrough to follow (a list of the steps to take in order to complete or escape the room), which would allow them more practice and me an opportunity to gauge their comprehension skills.