tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424071022585849998.post3841201002845398580..comments2023-10-08T03:29:03.365-04:00Comments on Kevin Miklasz: What are badges, and how will education use them?Kevin Miklaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09905427341009635469noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424071022585849998.post-53540366048956193092013-05-10T10:27:01.836-04:002013-05-10T10:27:01.836-04:00Thanks Ray! I think you are the first to leave me ...Thanks Ray! I think you are the first to leave me a comment on my newly updated and now active personal blog! Glad you found this helpful: your comments hit on all the issues that are key points to me that I have been thinking about further. I am planning a three part followup to this post in the next couple weeks that will get at some of your points so instead of replying in full here, I'm going to hold off and ask for your comments on those future posts. First post is in dissecting Katie Salen's and James Gee's work to relate gamification to education, second post is comparing gamified education to our current school system, and third will be adding badges into the gamified education picture. Look for them in the next week or so, I think you'll find them interesting. I also have an older post on the "Role of games in education," not sure if you saw that one.<br /><br />I haven't heard of Sugata Mitra before, do you have a good reference you can point me to?<br /><br />As for the motivation aspect- I'll add a mini spoiler here summarizing my third upcoming post. To me there is no substitute for a well-designed activity, and it is the design and structure of the activity itself that creates motivation. A badge is simply a tool added on top of the activity, it can't by itself make a great learning experience. To me a badge is simply an amplification tool- it can't make a bad activity good, but it can make a great activity frickin awesome. <br /><br />To relate this to games, kids don't play games because they have badges, they play games because the game itself is a really fun and engaging activity. But once they start playing the game, they play the game more fully and deeply than they otherwise might because of the badges. In this way, badges "amplify" the experience.Kevin Miklaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09905427341009635469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424071022585849998.post-17281819253672546122013-05-09T20:04:43.005-04:002013-05-09T20:04:43.005-04:00Phew, Kevin, great post. I've been excited ab...Phew, Kevin, great post. I've been excited about (open) badges as vehicle for 'unlocking' education, because the promise seems quite obvious. You've clarified more detailed aspects of badges and the game environment they inhabit/create...aspects which relate their application to education. <br /><br />I'm specifically interested in combining gaming & badges with the kind of self-directed emergent learning that Sugata Mitra has talked about. It seems to me, gaming is as much about emergent learning as something could be. Badges help create a structure that could be very valuable for self-directed and emergent learning. <br /><br />So, how will this paradigm of play take greater hold? When I first got excited about badges, it was because badges represented a way to complement (or replace ideally, imho) traditional learning structures that mostly (imho again) serve to perpetuate social disparities and, as Ken Robinson says, kill creativity. But is that what would motivate secondary and even elementary-age kids? I doubt they are thinking that far ahead - though since I teach kids for a living I suppose I'll ask - or recognize the need to get outside the box of traditional formal education (though many of them do recognize intuitively that the system doesn't serve). <br /><br />I am at a place of wondering, questioning, if the goal of badges to be a complement/replacement for traditional formal education should be a primary focus. First, it may not be what motivates kids to participate in such educational games. Second, there would need to be a culture shift that embraces games as a legitimate - nay, optimal - learning vehicle. By parents, school administrators, teachers, and society in general. That's a vision I can't wait to see come to be, but I'd guess it's a long way coming, despite the movement that is building with people and organizations like Jane McGonical, James Gee, Sasha Barab, Katie Salen and organizations like Mozilla, Institue of Play and others leading the charge. Rayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14568591769713639602noreply@blogger.com