Education, Learning, Play and Gamification

This blog post is a reflection on my (current) definition of  the terms: Education, Learning, Play and Gamification.  Personally I believe that we all can learn for our entire lives, however the extent of resources (including time) and role-models available usually limits what we can learn, and what we want to learn. At some point we internalise values, stop learning and habitual behaviour kicks in. At any point in our life we can take in new information which may, or may not change our values and habits.  Settling in to a habitual life can bring contentment, in that aspect of our life at least, so that further learning may not be necessary, or desired, and can even be viewed as dangerous. For each person and culture this ‘comfort zone’ of contentment and habits will be different. So learning is linked to change, specifically behaviour change, and the desire for change is a very personal process. (Or maybe that’s just what I have been taught to believe? 😉

As I am from the Island continent of Australia, I have missed out on the notion of arbitrary, ever-changing borders common in Europe. There are 26 pavement markings of the border between Netherlands and Belgium.The Australian government has never had to discuss whether we should place a picnic table at the border, or soldiers facing each other, or a statue of Jesus, or a huge spiky wall.   I hope one day someone can sit me down in one of the lovely cafes and explain why these borders are marked on the pavements. I don’t think I will be convinced.

“Netherlands and Belgium – The borders in the town of Baarle are the most confusing borders in the world. The entire town is surrounded by The Netherlands but 26 separate pieces of the town belong to Belgium. For clarification and the interest of tourists, the border is made visible on all the town’s streets. This way it is always clear whether one is in Belgium (Baarle-Hertog) or in The Netherlands (Baarle-Nassau).” http://www.viralnova.com/international-borders/

From my perspective, delineating between formal/informal, institution/independent, blended/online, educated/uneducated, seems sooo last century. I am interested in digitally-led, multi-platform, post-industrial models of lifelong ‘learning and playing’. Learning and Play are more useful terms to me in my everyday conversation because they are simpler versions of slippery terms like gamification and education. Last week during a webinar on gamification in education, someone asked me if I use the terms education and learning interchangeably, which has spun around in my mind for a few days since.  “Yes, I do” was my immediate response, with emphasis on “I” .. me .. now…  I do love semantics, with due respect for your definition, or past definitions, of mine or yours. Like borders, these definitions  will change and are meant to change – that is the marvel of language. Unless the borders  happen to be oceans or cliffs – which don’t change very much.  The way we have used the term education is changing. New terms like gamification are being introduced. Whilst allowing for the evolution of terms to reflect our path and changing needs, learning and play are more easily understood  terms.

Let’s begin with definitions of ‘Learning’ and ‘Education’ (from Wikipedia).

Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but may also be autodidactic.^[1] Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. Education is commonly divided into stages such as preschool, primary school,secondary school and then college, university or apprenticeship. … “Etymologically, the word “education” is derived from the Latin ?duc?ti? (“A breeding, a bringing up, a rearing”) from ?d?c? (“I educate, I train”) which is related to the homonym ?d?c? (“I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect”) from ?- (“from, out of”) and d?c? (“I lead, I conduct”).^[3] Education can take place in formal or informal educational settings.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

Learning is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves. Learning is not compulsory; it is contextual. It does not happen all at once, but builds upon and is shaped by what we already know. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Learning produces changes in the organism and the changes produced are relatively permanent.^{[1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning}

I  googled the difference between ‘Learning and Education” and am not convinced of the current delineation (google is an interesting example of the evolution of a new word’). Education seems tied to concepts of replication, institutes, and literacy. If you are really struggling with defining the term: “Educated’, try defining what is meant by the term: “Uneducated”. Some of my searching showed terms like education and research as two separate entities. For the last few thousand years the whole point of “Education’ has been to rise above, not replicate, our culture. Although we need methods for simply replicating knowledge, like Vocational colleges, the mission of our human species is to explore and expand knowledge through playing with ideas. Games and gamification are more frequently being used in discussions about the future of education. Einstein said: “Play is the highest form of research”. Investing in this generation’s most curious and intelligent people to spend time together playing with ideas to challenge what we think we know or building on it is very different to ‘replication’ of knowledge or preparing people for the existing workforce.

Gamification is a recent term that has been introduced globally. I am not finding the term gamification in education effective. I have been spending more time explaining that gamification doesn’t mean making games than I do discussing examples of how gamification relates to education. Sometimes languages need new words. I can see that in the fields of business, human resources, and health, as non-game contexts, this term is useful. However, I don’t see education as ‘a non-game context’ because play and games are so closely linked to learning.  Learning (aka education) has always used game-like elements eg. storytelling and role-play. Since the industrial era, educational institutions have used complex gamification systems like certificates and rewards.

There is another word in common English that I am finding is a great starting place for conversations about education and gamification: Play.  Teachers easily understand the phrase ‘playful design’ without having to conceptualize the difference between games and gamification. There is a lot of solid research about the relationship between Play and Learning . The more evolved the species the more play is evident; lizards and snakes don’t play. Research into the deprivation of ‘Play” in human childhood is linked to socio-pathic behaviours. Educational theorists promote the value of play: