Bill Brandon comments at e-Learning on a prior post regarding "Gaming the Learners".
The challenge is in the design, and in keeping the game from becoming a distraction. If the point of the game becomes aiding rote memorization, then the only thing that has been done is to build a better dogcart. Interesting but still the wrong answer, or at least only a small part of the answer. I have in the past been as guilty of this as anyone in education, but I'm in a 12-step program for it (Pegagogics Anonymous). I hope somebody is doing some research before going overboard on this. In 35 years of developing, delivering and managing efforts to help people learn, I've seen too many fads come and go, and every time they went, a little more of our credibility as educators went with them. [e-Learning]
I think he is on the money and causes me to reflect whether we lose our focus in all the discussion about education. To paraphrase James Carville (hmm... why doesn't he blog?) "It's the kids, stupid.".
