So why should we bring game design into our classrooms? Let's take a look at a few axioms (starting points of reasoning so evident that they are accepted as true without controversy...I learned this word at ISTE!).

Learning can be compelling. By design, games create a "need to know", and players (our students) are motivated to discover, understand, or master a concept or skill to be able to progress towards a larger goal.
Failure is a valid path to learning, and should be expected and encouraged. Making mistakes in a video game is generally encouraged. Failure is purposefully used as a technique for exploring, and feedback provides learners with cues, hints, and partial solutions to keep them progressing and motivated, as well as acknowledging incremental goal progress. Think about the game Pac-Man. After completing a level, the next levels get harder. The path you took on the previous level may not be the best path for the one you're on now. Trial and error will help you find the best path to collect all the dots and to avoid the ghosts. Watch this short video on failure:
Progression through a course can be leveled. In a typical classroom, a teacher will direct students through a series of lessons or units, with no real student input concerning the pace. What if this was a game? Do you think players would continue to come back and play if they weren't allowed to move to the next level when they had mastered one? Or what if they were moved to the next level before they were ready? No one would play this game and the game designer would be out of a job. In the gamified classroom, learners are presented with achievable, incremental challenges that are designed to build the skills necessary for meeting harder and harder challenges that ultimately lead to the successful completion of the final level. Like in a game, students can "fail" an assignment, quiz, etc. until they have mastered the skill or concept. This is referred to as "mastery learning", and it allows for the differentiation and personalization of learning.

There are many different ways to gamify your classroom. In this model, created by Philip Vinogradov, as learners "play" the game, they earn badges and skill points which they can use to unlock "powers" that enable them to have greater autonomy in directing their own learning. Earned "powers" allow learners to conference with the teacher to propose ways they will demonstrate skill development and mastery of assessment standards, in place of established assignments.