Learning as-you-do-it is more efficient and effective than classrooms or textbook reading.
Could academic subjects remodel themselves on meditation apps, asks?
notes.andymatuschak.org/Guided_meditat
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This is probably easier for heavily procedural subjects, like math and meditation. Note that math instruction is already a lot like this, and doing exercises feels like "sitting down to do math".
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That suggests to me that it's not the app format but the procedural nature of the domain. Sitting down to meditate or to do math is easier, and is straightforward to offer in app form. See also a million popular exercise apps. But how does one just sit down to do history?
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(I actually spent a bit of time thinking about that question, when doing my MSc thesis on educational games. It looked to me like gamification is easy and effective for math, where you can automatically generate questions and verify the answers.)
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Interesting that you see gamification as easy! Do you have a theory as to why educational games have failed as a field? (or maybe you reject that premise?)
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I think gamification is pretty easy *for subjects like math*. And there seem to be lots of good math games out there - I watched a five-year old learn to solve algebraic equations while playing on a laptop. (I'm confused why there aren't more math games for higher maths, though.)
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But as I suggested in the other tweets, math seems like an exception rather than the rule; other subjects largely don't have the kinds of properties that would make it easy. (the ones that feel like they might also have promise are math-like, such as physics)
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The kind/wicked learning environment distinction is certainly important—math is easier to gamify than writing because it's much easier to give automated, prompt, unambiguous feedback.
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But I think the reason even math games are rare is that games are inherently about purposeless fun. Most people (including kids) are pretty good at sniffing out ulterior motives behind a game-like system, like learning.
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Indeed—it's all about "find the fun."
Habitica is an interesting example. It's not really a game, but for many of its users it evokes feelings of comfort/adventure by adding game-like aesthetics to a context that is usually somewhat dry.
Reminds me of this:
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I enjoyed this detailed analysis of the factors that make a video game "cozy":
projecthorseshoe.com/reports/featur
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Maybe the key to 'gamifying' wicked learning environments isn't to add more rewards, rules, or incentives, but simply to make them more pleasurable to inhabit.
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Yeah, this is definitely something that edugame designers need to explicitly recognize; just the instructional content alone is not necessarily enjoyable enough, unless the player gets to use their mastery of it for something intrinsically interesting.
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The way I expressed it in my thesis was that progress in mastering the content needs to "lead to clear improvements in the player's ability to evaluate their options and make good choices" in the context of the more interesting thing.
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