Hi Tzvi,
I'd like to make the argument that:
- Increasing opportunities for gaming and game design in Jewish ed is an amazing thing.
- But that "Gamifying" Jewish ed is a fairly dangerous idea.
We know from years and years of educational psychology research that while external motivators are often great at getting students to accomplish goals in the short-term, in the long run they devalue and cheapen the specific thing that we're trying to motivate students to engage with.
Points, and badges, and leveling up in many ways are no different than the traditional rewards classroom teachers have given (good grades, pizza parties, etc) except this time they come wrapped in shiny marketing, digital animations, and silicon/wadi valley funding
Prof. Dan Schapiro has some additional thoughts on the issue:
[
www.gamesandlearning.org]
As does Prof. Ian Bogost (just google "Gamification is bullshit" for his short essay [and longer chapter length entry])
Best,
Russel Neiss
