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I was just playing around with Motion Math, working on a review for The Puzzle School and I came across one of their games where if you don’t answer fast enough then a pin pops your bubble and you have to start over. I’ve never been a big fan of this type of motivation. It’s […]
June 17, 2012
At The Puzzle School we’re essentially trying to teach through trial and error. Which means we aim to create environments (puzzles) where you can solve challenges through trial and error. This means that the environment is simplified, making it easier to come up with hypothesis to “try” and where there is feedback that makes it […]
May 26, 2012
There is a state of mind called “Flow” which many people believe to be an optimal psychological state for learning and creativity: From Wikipedia: Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of […]
May 21, 2012
I really wish people would stop talking about the personalization revolution in education, where technology will allow us to deliver a personalized learning plan for every student. If you want true personalization you don’t need technology, you need autonomy. The only truly personalized learning is one where the student decides what he or she is […]
May 12, 2012
There is a famous quote about selling property, “There are three things that matter, Location, Location, and Location”. With the consumer Internet, where I’ve spent most of my professional career, that quote becomes, “There are three things that matter, Distribution, Distribution, and Distribution”. If you can create a consumer product that spreads easily (goes viral) […]
May 11, 2012
Just read the following article describing a study demonstrating the importance of choice and autonomy in motivation: What’s the best way to encourage kids In one of the experiments, Ibrahim Senay, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and two co-authors asked a group of subjects to prepare for an anagram-solving task by […]
March 21, 2012
At the heart of The Puzzle School, or really any educational effort I want to be involved in, would have to an environment that people love, a place people desperately want to spend time in. The easiest way to ensure that this is happening is to remove all requirements. You can’t require students to do […]
February 16, 2012
Motivation is a funny thing. We know that something like autonomy can be a motivating factor (or rather the lack of autonomy can be a hugely demotivating factor), but the funny thing is that autonomy can be simulated or faked very easily. If someone want to control another person (remove their autonomy), say a parent […]
January 20, 2012
In software there is a term, “the mythical man month”. It refers to the idea that, in order to speed up a project, you can simply throw more man months at it. You can have people work longer hours or add additional team members to the project. The reason it’s called “mythical” is because it […]
January 18, 2012
From everything I’ve experienced, research I’ve read, etc. autonomy is a really important part of motivation. Basically you’re much more likely to do something well when you want to do it vs. being told to do it. (if you’re interested in more thoughts on motivation and autonomy then this is a fun video to watch: […]
June 20, 2012
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