Bayne and Ross (2007); Bennett, Maton, and Kervin (2008); and Margaryan, Littlejohn, and Vojt (2011) have provided compelling evidence that “digital natives” may be a myth. I have experienced this in my online class when I observe the “digital natives” experiencing difficulties utilizing technology from their everyday lives in contexts slightly different than what they are used to. They also seem to support the above mentioned studies in that they do not want a complete technological immersion as part of their learning experience.

That being said, I am quite interested in applying gamification techniques when it comes to the online classroom and am looking to develop methods to use in my class. For myself, my students are experiencing some difficulties utilizing Google+ as their discussion platform. They may know Facebook, but G+ is a mystery to them and one they apparently do not want to solve on their own. I plan to develop gamification methods that will encourage them to learn G+ features and use them in a slightly more sophisticated manner than the current group of students. I will be matching desired action to particular gamification techniques that have proved successful in similar situations (such as FourSquare’s completion bar as they fill out their profile information and Stack Overflow’s leveling method that implies experience and knowledge, or like Research Gate’s point system!). I may use a reward system such as badges in the beginning, but I do want them to develop intrinsic motivation to communicate with their classmates so whatever I develop will need to gently push them in that direction – posting because they enjoy communicating with others in the course and/or want to contribute to knowledge building. My next step perhaps leads into your question – can the school’s ICT support an automated method to accomplish this?

I apologize as this is much more than you probably wanted to know, but I am looking for fellow educators with which to discuss these issues and perhaps flesh out logistics and concepts.

Gamification is always an interesting approach. What we must understand is that games have complex reward systems. So, if I want students to use what-type-of-media ever in a gamificationed process, I have to think of reward systems.

Have look at network systems like LinkedIn or Xing. They use a gamification method for profile updates, showing the user a percentage of data given (and thus demanding more input).

I for myself use positive encouragements instead of penalties ( I consider it bad game design to punish my 'players' ;-)

Are there already existing "ranking/bonus" approaches that proved useful? The exchange of gained points for "special bonuses" would also be a interesting perspective as a lot of students wouldn't take part in games if there is not a "real" bonus outcome - apart from passing the course ;)

They are numerous approaches. Check out all types of online games or web services. If you pay money, you get percentages of, more data space etc.

Students need something they can relate on in their own world. First, one must see if the people we are dealing with are number-types or visual-types. I prefer visual myself. Imagine you can use filling up a horizontal bar with color as a (tiny, but still satisfying) reward. Closing in on a goal for a time schedule for example can be visualized that way. Thus you get the "reward" of getting the bar filled up with color, showing you how much you have done and what lies ahead of you.

Of course it works best, if there is a reward somewhere hidden in it. It can be anything, ranging from bonus points for something to candy bars in real life... or a BBQ with your favored professor at the end of term (which isn't that common in Europe but more in the US).

Now back for ITC: Even if you don't have a chance to implement bonus systems in a software, you can create such 'reward' systems and 'milestones' analog, but communicate with your students digital.