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> An interactive program delivered an image of a token on the screen when she completed an assignment. She could then trade in those tokens to play games. > To

> An interactive program delivered an image of a token on the screen when she completed an assignment. She could then trade in those tokens to play games. > To Dr. Boyd, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, it looks more like a video game than a math class. She isn’t sure if the lessons are sticking with Jane and worries about the hyper-stimulating screen time. I think gamifying school is probably a good idea. How many kids don't know the parts of speech, but have memorized the Pokedex?

khawkins 7y ago
Even in the late 90s/early 2000s they had a program set up in my district which gamified reading books. For the books in the program you could choose to take a quiz that would effectively test whether you read and comprehended the content. If you passed the quiz, you'd get points based on how well you did on the quiz and how long the book was. Those points would add up and you could use them for prizes at the end of the semester.
colpabar 7y ago
I have to agree. I've accepted that the Pokedex part of my brain is never going to be reclaimed. What worries me though is that it will end up being even worse than standardized testing. I fear that these "games" will be nothing more than smaller, more frequent tests that will be used to generate metrics which will be used to "fund" individual students.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  That brings to mind a classic issue - it isn't the tech but how it is used. The same standardized test approach which combines the worst features of feudalism and bueracracy with the virtues of neither was there before. The games or lack of them won't change that. I vividly remember how in Elementary School they had workbooks after workbooks of multiple choice analogies with words used within occasionally unexplained. They insisted it was all very important when we asked why so overboard. The real answer became obvious when the SAT was changed to have a writing section instead of an analogies one and they promptly vanishes into the void only to appear on standardized tests four questions a year at very most. They didn't even have the honesty to say "It is used a lot for in important test."

khawkins 7y ago

Even in the late 90s/early 2000s they had a program set up in my district which gamified reading books. For the books in the program you could choose to take a quiz that would effectively test whether you read and comprehended the content. If you passed the quiz, you'd get points based on how well you did on the quiz and how long the book was. Those points would add up and you could use them for prizes at the end of the semester.

colpabar 7y ago

I have to agree. I've accepted that the Pokedex part of my brain is never going to be reclaimed. What worries me though is that it will end up being even worse than standardized testing. I fear that these "games" will be nothing more than smaller, more frequent tests that will be used to generate metrics which will be used to "fund" individual students.

Nasrudith 7y ago
That brings to mind a classic issue - it isn't the tech but how it is used. The same standardized test approach which combines the worst features of feudalism and bueracracy with the virtues of neither was there before. The games or lack of them won't change that. I vividly remember how in Elementary School they had workbooks after workbooks of multiple choice analogies with words used within occasionally unexplained. They insisted it was all very important when we asked why so overboard. The real answer became obvious when the SAT was changed to have a writing section instead of an analogies one and they promptly vanishes into the void only to appear on standardized tests four questions a year at very most. They didn't even have the honesty to say "It is used a lot for in important test."