Making Gamefication Sustainable

Although I couldn’t have succinctly articulated three months ago what exactly gamification is, I have really come to see that it is an essential tool for encouraging online learning (as well as even learning in the classroom). Using the structures for rewarding and giving feedback from video games such as points, leaderboards or even badges, which have becoming so ingrained in youth culture due to the popularity of gaming, just makes sense to me as a way to encourage fun and creative learning. I think open badges are a fantastic example of this, but there are of course many different others ways to reward learning in way that uses gamification.

But today I stumbled upon this study by Gartner, an East Coast research firm, which predicts that by 2014 80% of gamified apps will fail. Now this number is pretty large, and at first glance this is pretty worrying. Gartner suggests in their press release today that, “Poor game design is one of the key failings of many gamified applications today.”

"The focus is on the obvious game mechanics, such as points, badges and leader boards, rather than the more subtle and more important game design elements, such as balancing competition and collaboration, or defining a meaningful game economy. As a result, in many cases, organizations are simply counting points, slapping meaningless badges on activities and creating gamified applications that are simply not engaging for the target audience. Some organizations are already beginning to cast off poorly designed gamified applications.”

Interestingly, they seem to be implying that the problem isn’t with gamification, but instead the issue is with the lack of a corresponding infrastructure to make the gamification plausible. I think this is a very important point: that you can’t just slap a badge onto something just to make it popular. Or just because something will then resemble a video game more can it be expected to work. For the idea of gamification to really catch on, and for it really to encourage learning, these video-game-like features have to be inherent to the system. Not something just thrown on as a cheap ploy, but they need to be deeply embedded within the structure of learning and education.

I would really like to see more gamificationin school settings, with systems such as badges not only encourage students to learn about what interests them but to also begin to discuss it online with their friends and peers. I’ve come to see through the Mormon Badges Projects that it is essential to not only have to give out the online proof of learning but to create a tool to share that proof online with friends and family. Gamification initially may encourage someone to initially learn something, but it is only through well thought out application and design of these elements that an app or badge program can really expect to succeed and have a lasting effect.

Ultimately Gartner asserts that, “While game mechanics such as points and badges are the hallmarks of gamification, the real challenge is to design player-centric applications that focus on the motivations and rewards that truly engage players more fully. Game mechanics like points, badges and leader boards are simply the tools that implement the underlying engagement models.”

The Matrix, Wreck-It Ralph and Identity

 

While I’ve been home for Thanksgiving this past week I finally had the time to see two digital cultural related movies (albeit completely different): Wreck-It Ralph and the Matrix. While I had heard good things about both, and I thought that they would both pertain to themes I’ve been blogging and thinking about over the last few months, I was very surprised at how nicely they actually go together. The Matrix is very much more intense and dark than Wreck-It Ralph, but they both pose interesting questions of identity and how to survive in a world completely dominated by technology.

I should probably begin by saying that I was pleasantly surprised with the Matrix, and Wreck-it Ralph drove me crazy. Going into both movies I expected to not like the Matrix and to enjoy Wreck-it, but it’s nice to be wrong once in a while. Although both movies left me with a lot to think about, I appreciate the mind-bending way the Wachowski brothers approached the questions they raised about reality and where we can draw the lines.

Within both movies there is the central idea of being able to create and mold who we are, especially in video games and virtual reality. I think that its essential that both Ralph and Neo only get power over their own world and situation, whether its their video game or inside the Matrix, as they choose who they’re going to be and how the world will perceive them. It is when Neo finally accepts himself as the hacker Neo, not the safe computer programmer he once was, that he finds his power as the one. Likewise Ralph needs to accept himself as he is, but also realize that he has potential outside of the roles others have prescribed for him, so that he can gain control over his world and his environment.

Now I don’t necessarily think we’re all living in a completely machine controlled world, but I do think that the idea of creating our own identity is still essential to controlling our online world (and the very physical reflections it can have). I highly doubt we’re going to have the types of identity crises portrayed in either movie, yet the way he define ourselves and our relationships online gives them power and authority within our world. As we choose who we’re going to be online, we decide what influences we’re going to let into our lives and the power they will have.

In the end both of these movies echo the same themes of who are we and how do we formulate our own identities in a world that is trying to describe ourselves for us. I don’t know if I’d personally recommend Wreck-It Ralph, but I think that both it and the Matrix provide an invaluable lens for viewing our culture and our increasingly digital society.

Looking at the DM+LC4

I've been meaning to take some time to examine the winners from the Digital Media + Learning competition 4 that I mentioned in a blog post this weekend. Although badges do seem to be relatively unknown, its pretty encouraging to see that a number of interesting a diverse groups are beginning to use badges for a variety of projects.

One of the badge projects that I've found most interesting is the "My Girl Scout Sash is an App" badge system. The project is described as bringing "the Girl Scout Leadership Experience and career development badge program to a digital media learning platform for girls, ages 5-17, with a focus on middle school and high school. Through collaboration with Motorola Mobility Foundation and MentorMob, teams of girls will create apps, demonstrating and sharing the knowledge gained and badge proficiencies. MentorMob's Learning Platform will be scalable to any individual, teacher, or organization as it is free, open, and crowdsourced."

This idea ties very nicely with the system I've been looking for combining Personal Progress with badges. Yet what is perhaps most intriguing is the idea of tying badges (not a new idea with scouting) to a digital media learning platform, which also seems to be linked with digital media learning. It's pretty awesome to be able to inspire girls to learn how to make their own apps and using badges as a means of demonstrating proficiency.

Another interesting badge project is the "Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explores Badges," which again is tied to education although with a focus on wilderness and conservation issues. This project is described as engaging "youth in nature-based explorations, offering them a way to learn about and become advocates for wildlife and wild places. As these young Wilderness Explorers learn about conservation issues, they become teachers and ambassadors, content producers, and change makers. Badges will provide opportunities for Wilderness Explorers to make real connections in their communities that promote conservation locally and globally."

Again this idea is drawing upon the gamification of learning, but here its fascinating to combine such physical and outdoor based learning with digital media, which is a typically indoor activity. This is actually quite an exciting juxtaposition, and I'm interested to learn more about it as the project grows.

Although there are many different and interesting projects associated with this competition, its exciting to see that others are realizing the capability of badges to influence learning through gamification, even if it is of material that is traditionally associated with the outdoors rather than computers!

Digital Culture and Civic Engagement

Last week prompted by the election, I had the chance to think more about digital ethics and how our digital culture is making it easier and easier to become involved within politics and our governments. My first thoughts on this were on all my friends who at the time were sharing their political views and opinions through social media without even having to leave home. While this was often a little too overt for my tastes, I appreciate how my friends typified how our generation is getting involved to try to create the change they feel is necessary in the world. But even more than just sharing on Facebook or Twitter, I’ve come to see that the internet is a powerful tool for true engagement in civic processes whether it’s on a local, national or international level.

This summer I spent time at the United Nations in Geneva advocating for social change for women’s and family rights. While it was obviously very effective to be able to communicate in person with NGOs and member states, I was surprised at the prevalence and importance of social media. Countries, and the UN itself, are making an effort to be online tweeting and posting Facebook updates. No longer do you have to be in Geneva to follow what’s being said in the Human Rights Council or at the General Assembly in New York (check out footage here! ). As the sessions are live, anyone anywhere can be actively following issues that are important to them.

Yes this does take time and effort, but I firmly believe that we need to be following issues that are important to us and our world – whether or not we see them directly affecting us.

Likewise I had the chance to do less personal advocacy within the UK through emails and letters to politicians about the issue of Female Genital Mutilation. While this is a very specific issue, it was empowering to see the kind of response a simple letter or email to a Member of Parliament could generate.  Most of these MPs have information available online with their voting history, and thoughts and experience about very relevant issues, making it simple and not frightening to contact them online or through more formal letters. At first I thought that these sorts of communications wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I am now of the opinion that this is exactly the way to make our voices heard. Even if we just send a short letter or email, it is vitally important that we let our politicians know how we feel about issues that we see as important.

Yes, I think sharing our opinions through social media is a great start to civic engagement. But as digital media brings our world closer and closer together, I know that we need to use all of our resources, whether that’s a webcast, twitter or email, to make our voice heard and start changing the world around us.

While doing some research on badges, I’ve found some more avenues to explore and examine to better understand the facets of the thinking about badges.

 A few interesting websites/articles:

CNBC -- TheInternet May Be the Key to Managing Runaway College Costs

Although the thinking on this article isn’t exactly new, I find the very succinct way that badges are linked with university education as a means for avoiding escalating tuition costs.

 

Digital Media + Learning Competition 4 -- Competition Winners

I’m really excited to take a better look at what these projects actually entailed, and what the results can inspire for the Mormon Badges project. Winners include Girl Scouts, 4-H and Disney-Pixar.

 Fast Company -- Disney-Pixar, NASA, MozillaPartner On Badges To Shape The Future Of Learning

This article dicusses the Digital Media + Learning Competition above and its winners. I like the idea that they emphasize with badges that, "In a digital platform you have an opportunity to connect learning in a way that's organic."

NY Times – Show Me Your Badge

This is one of the most comprehensive explanations of what badges are and why they’re currently relevant that I’ve yet to see. I am particularly interested in the groups they listed such as Carnegie Mellon University, the Smithsonian and Intel.

 

Forbes -- Why Get a Pricey Diploma When a Bleepin' Badge Will Do?

This article again covers the future of badges, but they talk a lot about the future of badges with the career market. A different angle to a familiar topic.

All in all, I'm discovering more and more about how other projects are starting to use badges. There's still a lot of work to be done, but there really are a lot interesting projects beginning right now.

Evaluating Intent in (Mormon) Badges

An interesting topic that came up, while I was at the Mormon Badges’ presentation at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium on Friday, is how do we ensure that badges are being created and used for the right reasons. An astute audience member asked about how we can keep badges within a church setting from becoming a competition, or just earning badges in order to show off and be the most “spiritual.” While this is an issue we’d considered in passing, bringing it up at the conference has prompted me to think more about the issue, and how we can avoid this problem.

Ultimately, I think the answer is that this issue can’t be completely prevented, but we can encourage using badges for the right reasons. As I’ve come to understand and use badges more and more,  I really see that the essential feature is how they are so easy to share, not only the badge itself but also the concepts and learning that is being done. A badge isn’t just proof of credibility. Instead it can be a facilitator for meaningful conversation and sharing, and I really feel it will be a powerful tool for encouraging online learning and eventually online missionary work.

That being said, I think the emphasis with badges needs to be on why we are creating them and what purpose will they serve. Obviously there are possible uses for badges that would just cause problems, like giving public badges for doing your Home Teaching or Visiting Teaching each month. I could really see that escalating into a who is more righteous contest with public “proof” displayed online. But instead of this, I think we need to be creating badges that help people learn more, whether it’s about secular or religious topics, and to talk about what they’re learning whether it’s with friends, collogues or family.

In the end, they may still be abuse of the system, but I really feel like badges have the capability to do so much good, especially within the context of Mormonism and the LDS Church. Badges are able to motivate, educate and facilitate online sharing and proselyting, and by emphasizing these aspects I think much of these problems will be avoided.

Copyright and the Open Movement

This weekend I’ve had some time to think more about a subject I discussed at the beginning of the semester: copyright and the open movement. The more I’ve written and learned about digital culture over the last few months, the more I’ve been able to see the value of the open movement and all that it has to teach us. Through the work I’ve been doing with badges, I’ve been exploring the power of the open education movement and how open learning allows more freedom and diversity in learning.

Yet a topic I’m still learning about is the application of copyright with the open movement, especially through the creative commons license. After talking about some of the specifics of digital copyright on Thursday, I wanted to learn more about how this specific lisence works. Although I found this website , I also appreciate this more thorough description from Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice:

“The open source movement has inspired a variety of similar distribution models in the realms of science, culture and art, which are commonly referred to as ‘open access’ or ‘open content’. In fact, the open content movement perceives the current copyright regime as the major obstacle to creative activity. This new licensing model purports to rectify the shortcomings of the copyright regime by allowing, through contracts, increased access to and use of artistic and scientific works. Among the numerous licensing models based on open content, the most successful application so far is the Creative Commons initiative (creativecommons .org), which was set up initially in the United States, but is now rapidly spreading across the globe. While the current copyright regime is serving the needs of intermediaries, the open content licensing model, especially the Creative Commons license, is directed mostly to individual authors. Creative Commons has developed a series of standard-form licenses that allow authors of literary, musical or audiovisual works to permit wide dissemination and transformative uses of their works, without forfeiting copyright. While copyright law creates the default rule of All Rights Reserved, making permission necessary for each and every use of a work, Creative Commons seeks to facilitate an environment in which Some Rights Reserved or even No Rights Reserved become the norm.”

I can only imagine if the Creative Commons License becomes even more popular and prevalent. Although there are still issues, it’s powerful to utilize a system where the most beneficially qualities of the internet are capitalized upon: the power of collaboration and cooperation.  There are still a number of situations where this system doesn’t and won’t apply, but the way it utilizes the best qualities of the open movement, with an emphasis on authority through transparency, is vitally important. I hope to continue to look more at how the internet and copyright can develop to meet each other’s needs, but I feel like the Creative Commons License is a powerful start.