My trouble with gamification and the game-layer view of writing the future.
A set of disjointed facebook comments on the issue -- that more or less get to the heart of the debate for me.
At its core, creativity and mental and intellectual development is about exploration. Replacing a macro game system -- study, go to college, be successful; with a micro game system -- study, level-up, next -- doesn't really solve anything. You can't gamify true exploration or creativity, because you can't gamify a territory that is not defined. And the moment you define a territory you limit yourself within it.
Also, "sabar ka phal meetha hota hai" roughly translates to "the fruit of perseverence is sweet".
Comments / feedback much appreciated.
Is it just me that worries about "gamification" / "introducing game dynamics" in education and stuff? Sounds a lot like Pavlov's dog. Perhaps we don't need to dumb everything down to stimulus-response? Not unless we want a world of minions.
Vikram Dhaliwal Using our knowledge of how the mind works to design better systems is hardly dumbing down. Dumb is what I would call education design today.
Aditya Anupkumar Somewhere we forget that systems are only as smart or as dumb as the people using them.
The purpose of education is not necessarily to spend 12 years in school and four in college. And it's not necessarily studying the topics highlighted in curriculum(s?).
Anyone talking about game layer and education in the same sentence is confusing the two and barking up the wrong tree. But that's just my opinion.
Aditya Anupkumar We can talk about creativity for example, but creativity is about exploring an unknown, and you can't gamify an unknown territory. That's not how it works. A game-system, no matter how complex, or laden with easter-eggs, is not going to do that.
Aditya Anupkumar Then again, I also need to check out Dignan's book on the topic. Might be something interesting that I missed.
Vikram Dhaliwal You and me can debate the purpose of education with the benefit of hindsight all day. The problem still is that it feels unconnected to anything, unrewarding and uninspiring to those currently in the clutches of our 'education system'. Those advocating for game dynamics are merely arguing for making it more interesting and rewarding right now. Instead of postponing the rewards to some amorphous later date.
Aditya Anupkumar Lekin sabar ka phal meetha hota hai.
Vikram Dhaliwal Try convincing a 13 year old of that. :)
Aditya Anupkumar Well, a lot of other things are forbidden to 13 year olds, and rightly so. We want to teach them to be human beings, not animals. i.e. stimulus-response and Pavlov's dog.
Vikram Dhaliwal Yes but how does making the process of acquiring knowledge more interesting by modifying it make the knowledge itself any less valuable?
Aditya Anupkumar If you're not doing something for the "right reasons" - i.e. "learning" - you might as well not do it.
Vikram Hazra @AA: Interesting thought and I'm inclined to agree. hv been wondering these past few days whether handwriting itself will be outdated in a couple of years
Aditya Anupkumar It's like in this country you try to do "science", then "medicine" or "engineering", then "MBA" -- not to learn or to manage or to build, but because it's a pre-set pathway to gratification.
That's already our game layer. And we're going to substitute that with another? Fake is fake no matter what you do.
Which is why we're barking up the wrong tree with this.
Aditya Anupkumar @Vikram, I shudder at that. :(
I think I'm going to invest a part of my salary in schools that teach the old fashioned way, for people interested in learning that way.
Vikram Hazra hv some thoughts on the matter myself. Am in bbay 14-20 gimme a shout
5 minutes ago · Unlike · 1 person
I totally agree with you Adi!
The dynamic of slow absorption, longer retention and extended retrieval has been replaced by fast uptake, minimal retention and scant retrieval.
And we're replacing all of these essential skills for something as shallow as instant gratification.
That's why our kids will complete all projects through Wikipedia, won't think for more than 10 seconds before running to Google and won't perform a single action unless there's an 'achievement' to be unlocked.
3 minutes ago · Unlike · 1 person
