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"While gamification is gaining ground in business, marketing, corporate management, health insurance,ecology and wellness initiatives, its application in education is still an emerging trend. This article presents a study of the published empirical research on the application of gamification to education.The study is limited to papers that discuss explicitly the effects of use of game elements in specificeducational contexts. It employs a systematic mapping design. Accordingly, a categorical structure forclassifying the research results is proposed based on the extracted topics discussed in the reviewed papers. The categories include gamification design principles, game mechanics, context of applyinggamification, consisting of type of application, educational level, and academic subject,implementation and evaluation. By mapping the published work to the classification criteria andanalyzing them, the study highlights the directions of the currently conducted empirical research onapplying gamification to education. It also indicates some major obstacles and needs, such as the needfor a proper technological support, the need for controlled studies demonstrating reliable positive ornegative results of using specific game elements in particular educational contexts, etc. Although mostof the reviewed papers report promising results, more substantial empirical research is needed todetermine whether both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of the learners can be influenced bygamification"

Dive Brief: Implementing new technologies can yield challenges for students, faculty and other campus users that are not accustomed to these tools, especially if instruction on their use is "nebulous and frustrating," writes Eric Stoller, a student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed. Stoller suggests institutions provide quality customer service around digital services, and pressure "old-guard" technology companies to provide systems that meet or exceed users' expectations or aligning themselves with "solutions/providers with less built-in corporate rigidity." He also advises that institutions' marketing teams and communications offices make sure that digital services like campus mobile apps make sense for their students' preferred user experiences, so that the technologies enhance the overall student experience and boost branding and recruitment efforts.

Dropbox is broadening its sales focus from targeting mostly corporations to trying to attract paid users in higher ed, too. Officials say the intent is for those collaborating on research and potentially sharing high amounts of sensitive data and information to be able to do so in a secure environment that is controlled by the campus CIO. PC World reports the company does not see Dropbox Education as useful for "undergrads who may just need to turn in a paper or two."

"Create grids of questions or topics using text or video and share your questions with whomever you like. Your audience then responds with recorded videos. Flipgrid boosts community and collaboration in classrooms, corporations, and at conferences around the world."

Turns out, corporate America and teachers both dislike traditional feedback. Is there a better approach?

"The selfie stick, dubbed the "wand of narcissism", is now an essential carry-on item for many travellers. But Simon Tatz wonders why tourists find their own faces more fascinating than the wonders they behold."

Common Core is arbitrary and untested. Standards are fine, but need to have some basis in research, not just because the have financial support from rich people and corporations who think they know what's best for all.

"The biggest threat to education today is the corporate education reform movement-what many of us call "Ed Deform." It is also the biggest threat to teachers' working conditions."

"Verizon Foundation is launching the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy, a virtual, moderated professional development course offered to teams of educators for free. The course includes five modules developed around ISTE standards. Course modules are designed to help teachers, administrators and tech coaches implement effective mobile learning initiatives in their schools and classrooms. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be offered to teachers completing the Verizon Mobile Learning Academy course."

"If the right-wing billionaires and apostles of corporate power have their way, public schools will become "dead zones of the imagination," reduced to anti-public spaces that wage an assault on critical thinking, civic literacy and historical memory. Since the 1980s, schools have increasingly become testing hubs that de-skill teachers and disempower students."

"Common Sense Media is making their new Digital Passport™ mobile app for Android and iOS"

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an independent corporation and one of two commission members of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), which is one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States. The Higher Learning Commission accredits degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in the North Central region.

Useful critique that argues that the national common core standards should be voluntary, not mandatory, since they have been developed within a corporate context that required such standards as a condition of eligibility for "race to the top" funds, and that it is unclear whether these standards will have positive or negative effects on students--they just haven't been tried enough to justify them as "national" or "mandatory."

secondary school design - from Carnegie Corporation

Episode 3 - A great comic looking at the problem of education reform!