Comments on: Ypulse Youth Website Profile: SmartyCard

By: Shaping Youth » Fun in the Forest Earns Dizzywood NAPPA Gold!

Shaping Youth » Fun in the Forest Earns Dizzywood NAPPA Gold! — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:48:38 +0000

[...] to pick up the tab, Dizzywood’s now one of the virtual worlds kids can access through the ‘learn to earn’ homework helper and quiz platform of SmartyCard (which I wrote about here and here) using grade leveled quizzes to [...]

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:26:56 +0000

Hi Todd,

I don’t think we have the luxury of striving for anything less than the ideal. Of course it’s going to be a long, bumpy road in pursuit of the horizon. But to encourage a tip-jar mentality as extrinsic motivation is inexcusably shortsighted. Please, at the least, read Alfie Kohn’s Unconditional Parenting or Punished by Rewards, Sir Ken Robinson’s Out of our Minds, or Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers then consider how ridiculous and unrealistic the SmartyCard solution is.

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:58:05 +0000

Peter,

While your point of view is noble and without rebuttal, it is also quite idealistic. We live in a world of rewards, whether it be salary/bonus for work or Nobel prizes and certificates from the educational establishment. Please be realistic that ANY way we can get children to engage in learning is worth trying and certainly something they will be challenged with on a daily basis throughout their lives.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:56:15 +0000

This creeps me out. PLEASE don’t fall for the vague “data indicates” wave of the hand. There are plenty of books by learned folk (Camerer, Brafman Bros., Ariely, Berns, Buckingham, and Robinson to name a few) that refute the benefits of extrinsic motivations as a long term solution to learning. SmartyCard is nothing more than creative positioning by a gaming company, pure and simple. It does a disservice to every parent by reinforcing that learning is rewarded by prizes like a parking lot carnival. It fails to developing creative, critical thinking in confident, intrinsically-motivated children.

By: Robin Raskin

Robin Raskin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:59:22 +0000

A story in the New York Times yesterday looked at programs where learning well is rewarded with “stuff”. Much as we’d all love to believe that kids learn for the sake of learning, data may indicate otherwise.
Above is a link to some thoughts on SmartyCard. Enjoy –Robin