The Chris Hecker talk mentioned in the video: chrishecker.com
24 thoughts on “Errant Signal – Gamification”
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educational technology (#edtech) #elearning
The Chris Hecker talk mentioned in the video: chrishecker.com
Comments are closed.
Man, I would totally eat a few books for some pizza.
The core concept of gamification is this: immediate, visible, reliable feedback based on input received that provides praise and rewards for expected behavior while making clear what undesirable behavior is. Gamification can be exploited for nefarious ends just like anything else. Gamification is a tool and it is our job to use it responsibly. Our use of the tool makes it good or evil, the tool itself is neither.
In a school setting, an example of gamification would be to take something intangible like the current grading system and rework it into a system of ‘leveling up’ and experience points. You’re still doing the work, but you get much more immediate and visible feedback in a language that most people under 40 can understand much easier. We’ve already done a lot of ‘gamification’ through the Apple Ipad and Iphone, turning otherwise-mundane devices into useful tools in our lives.
Gamification is the concept of providing tangible, immediate, and visible feedback via kinaesthetics that allows the participant to earn small meaningful (to them) rewards that enhance and increase the quality of their daily life. Gamification according to this definition in the concept of a real-world example is like getting cash back rewards every time you spend money on your Discover Card. You can track it, it is there, but it is hardly ‘exploitative’. It rewards but doesn’t hurt you.
I feel that while this video is well-written and thought out, you missed a key point of what ‘gameification’ truly means.
I don’t think I get it. I mean, I was never really attracted to The Escapist because of their badges to begin with, and I’m not watching ZP videos just to get badges, even though I find it nice when I’m rewarded with whatever for doing so. I watch them because I like them (as opposed to other series of videos). I understand that there will be people that will do both just to get them badges. I don’t see how gamification is bad as it is. Maybe people are just marketing it too heavily.
Start creating mods/models/other type of content for the game or website/community/forum about it. You will learn a LOT, believe me.
Did you honestly just call Extra Credits evangelists? Their opinion on the subject on how it can be exploited is not too different from yours, but simply just because they share opinions on how it can actually be fun and beneficial with out the exploits of human behavior isn’t worth the name you gave them.
but this time I didn’t because who would know. I found myself thinking, why am I going to spend hours breeding chocobos to get a completely optional spell when no one would know about all that work I did. This woke me up in a real way. I’ve been trying to correct myself ever since. I decided to play every game in my PS2 library(over 50 games) and from now on when I play current gen games, I do not look at any achievements before or during play. I feel I’m about halfway back to what I want to be.
I know things like achievements afftected me. Back on the PS1 and PS2 when I would play an RPG I would get every extra, every ultimate weapon, everything there was just to maximize my gaming experience. When the 360 rolled around, without noticing it, I would look at all the achievements available and wether or not there were ones for doing the side content. I didn’t realize it until I went back to play FFVII for the 5th time. Every other time, I got the golden chocobo, continued…
I actually play Gears Of War 3 because I enjoy it. I don’t like grinding in fact I despise it, I’m not big into achievements and the only reason I play games is for the story or just entertainment value. I have never got caught in Gamification, maybe when I was younger and played online games that required grinding. Now, I just try to find a good game with nice story and good replay value. Good video though, I found this through the latest TGS Podcast, keep up the good work!
well… gamification is there to exploit you, but remember that video games themselves are there to exploit you aswell 😀
While I do agree that gamification can be used as a simple marketing ploy to keep the users inside the system (like in your escapist example), I do not agree that gamification itself is bad.
Gamification also has a potential to be used for actual good. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are the ESP game and stackoverflow, both are heavily gamified, but both also bring some added value to the world as a result of said "game" mechanic.
While I do agree that gamification can be used as a simple marketing ploy to keep the users inside the system (like in your escapist example), I do not agree that gamification itself is bad.
Gamification also has a potential to be used for actual good. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are the ESP game and stackoverflow, both are heavily gamified, but both also bring some added value to the world as a result of said "game" mechanic.
While I do agree that gamification can be used as a simple marketing ploy to keep the users inside the system (like in your escapist example), I do not agree that gamification itself is bad.
Gamification also has a potential to be used for actual good. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are the ESP game and stackoverflow, both are heavily gamified, but both also bring some added value to the world as a result of said "game" mechanic.
Yes, the homework always influenced the grades. I really don’t know if it is only the bonus or if the theme influences. However, this is the first time they cheer when I say "there will be homework today", in past semesters they only complained.
Did you have rewards for completing the homework before? Is the increased homework completion due to the test bonus, or is it the theme you made?
00:50 yo dawg, i heard u like accomplishing things
… redeeming value for the person collecting them. If a company is using these to encourage behavior that the child wouldn’t otherwise engage in it becomes manipulative. Depending on the use it may be benign or it may be malicious. But it is fundamentally different than using compliments.
They share only superficial "encouragement", deeper they are very different. A compliment from an adult builds a child’s self esteem, its helps them build an identity as a person who does well and is recognized for that. Over time enough compliments for good behavior will lead to an adult who has internalized the belief that they worthwhile people who are capable of making worthwhile contributions to their community.
A badge system just taps into the collector lizard brain. It has no other…
The sad fact is that the target audience for this video will never see it =/
I already do that. Specially the ones with problems, I talk with them and warn them that this course is very cumulative, in the way that if they fall behind in um subject, they will struggle hard in the next ones.
The information is not made useless because in a test with at least 5 or 6 questions, the right to skip one don’t make them able to avoid studying one subject. All my questions mix the subjects, so without one of the subjects they would fail easily half the test.
The point about what this person is saying is that Gamification got their students to do more homework, not to just boost grades. To say that someone does no cear abour their students when their goal is to get their students to do more homework is utterly absurd you do realise that?
The badge and the complement both have something in common tho, they both offer encouragement to the child, making them more likely to do the action. You may think that a badge or experience point is "pointless", but when done right, they can be very compelling. Sure giving a child compliment has other good things about it, but the thing that makes the child more likely to the action again is the encouragement, which is present in both the complement example and the gamification example.