Comments on the Ted Talk video:  7 Ways to Reward the Brain

Let me begin by saying WOW......  For a non-gamer as myself I am impressed. I did not know there could be some really useful ways of applying the theory of the gaming process in the educational arena. I have noticed just like everyone else the extreme addition that can come from various games that people play at any age. My grandson loves to play his LeapFrog, my daughter plays her games on a 60 inch Vizio TV, and the iPhone is attached to the hip of my son-in-law. If games can bring in to education through these 7 ways to reward the brain of the student learner, I am all in! Teachers constantly complain about the lack of motivation and inner drive of their students, this is certainly an avenue that could be explored for the classroom. Using gaming this gaming data collection process in the classroom we could increase student engagement, breaking down learning into smaller calibrated tasks, apply calculated randomness, reward all large or small efforts, provide personal investment and capitalize on group behavior, with a minimal cost factor. Of course this is not new stuff, we have had gaming in educational software since the beginning of time but to harness the background support of the gaming industry to enhance education is a dream worth dreaming.

The one statement that really got to me was almost at the end of the video when the speaker referenced the game "EverQuest". He said the gamers developed a ..."player developed, self-enforcing, voluntary currency" that players used to collaborate in the game to slay the two big dragons and it exists today. There can be no limits to what the human mind can do if given the right direction, under the right circumstances.