Tom Chatfield suggests that the psychology and reward system behind successful video games can be utilized in other sectors of our lives, such as business, education, and government.  In education, I think a reward system for effort would be one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from gaming.  Motivating students can be one of the most frustrating challenges we as teachers encounter, especially with today's students who have become accustomed to immediate feedback (from overindulgent parents to television and video games).  Students respond to praise but even more to acknowledging their effort (whether the product created is good or not).  One step to motivating students to attempt classwork is to reward effort.  The psychology behind rewarding effort at least encourages students to complete assignments in order to receive more and more rewards.  Also, the group mentality found in games suggests possible success in certain educational situations involving cooperative learning.  A reward system created and monitored by the group encourages self-monitoring for their own success and frees the teacher to tutor students rather than contend with classroom management.

Evernote's uses in a classroom.

I love the idea of using Evernote to keep student work organized, especially for parent conferences.  I can see that it would be extremely useful for schools with little storage space for student files as well.    One last useful situation would be for group work on projects or assignments.  Imagine keeping all of the information for those infamous science projects together for others to view!

This device would certainly be welcome in my classroom.  Although the U.S. (and my classroom) are lightyears ahead of many of the students of India who haven't had smartphones, laptops, etc. to work with, we in rural Alabama are still behind many systems as far as technology availability to students and professionals.  Our school has one SmartBoard and we just were able to receive refurbished laptops for our homeroom teachers that will run the graphics programs so prevalent in education today (through the generosity of the Creek Indian donation).  I would be extremely proud to have a few of these devices in my classroom for students to use.  Of course, that means I would need to rethink my teaching process and the planning involved to incorporate technology use into everyday class activities.  I would love that challenge!

Although this device doesn't have all the bells and whistles that an iPad has, it certainly has many of the capabilities that a middle or high school student would need in a general classroom setting, such as opportunities to add apps, word processing (it has 2 USB ports) and spreadsheet creation, and of course gaming and internet surfing.  The battery life is about 3 hours but it does have an AC adapter so power is not a problem unless the electricity goes out.  Probably the best thing about it, especially from an administrative standpoint is the cost.  In India in 2011, this tablet would have cost about $60 retail, but the students' cost was $35 thanks to a government subsidy.  Awesome!

Please read about it at http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/26/aakash-android-tablet-exclusive/.
This image was copied from http://www.gogi.in/aakash-cost-tablet-india.html, January 14, 2013.

Article post on secrets of video game designers

• In Keith Stuart’s article “The seduction secrets of video game designers,” video games and their attractiveness to the general public are discussed.  Several ideas are mentioned contributing to the appeal, including autonomy of the player, disproportionate immediate feedback, feeding curiosity, judgement-free play and safety of the player to fail (which at times is even encouraged).  Other concepts adding to the rise of video game play across multi-generations are the authority given to players, tension in the story/game and its resolution, and the graphics celebrating accomplishments as well as surprise rewards during game play.
• In classrooms today, students are increasingly expecting “rewards” for completing assignments.  Although intrinsic motivation is still in evidence, in my opinion there is less visible now than in the past.  Extrinsic motivators, such as game play may be a way to encourage students to participate and complete learning goals.  In most classroom management seminars I've attended, praise and encouragement are often in the first plan suggested for student engagement.  How great would it be if we as educators could have the technology and plans to deliver most/all of our lessons to students in game form?  Ahhh, Utopia!

Hey fellow gamers!  I'm excited to see how this course goes.  I really have enjoyed the classes in this major and hope to soon incorporate some of the activities into my classroom.