Instant Gratification is Good For You: Lessons for Education

Contrary to popular belief, instant gratification can be a good thing.  Getting instantaneous feedback for our actions is good for us, especially in education.  Newer educational environments are more engaging than slow environments of recent years.  Social media, mobile gaming, and texting – while all addictive – give us immediate feedback and structuring learning activities in those ways is just what educational environments need in order to evolve.  Via Big Think.  “In most areas of life, feedback is either nonexistent or delayed. Throughout much of our education it takes days or even weeks for us to determine whether or not we did our homework assignments correctly. We’re at the mercy of our overburdened teachers, and receive feedback only when they’re able to grade our assignments. Tests are similar. It often takes two weeks for tests to be returned, at which point we can see what we didn’t quite understand. Each of these feedback gaps is an impediment to learning.AdvertisingThis is where technology can help. Much has been written about the digitization and gamification of learning. Technologists have painted a picture of the world in which students receive instantaneous feedback for their work inside of a digital whiteboard or classroom — allowing them to quickly correct their mistakes and improve. Others have written about education as a game, in which students gain points and move up levels depending on their performance.”

via Instant Gratification is Good For You: Lessons for Education | WikiMind | Big Think.