I remember an episode of the Simpsons where Principal Skinner insisted that you could make a game of any dull chore. It worked for him when he was trapped under a pile of newspapers: “I maintained my sanity by dribbling a nearby basketball. I made a game of seeing how many times I could bounce the ball, and breaking that record.” Skinner tried to convince Bart to set a new personal record for licking envelopes, but Bart saw immediately that this was a terrible game. 

That was the early 90s. Twenty years later, Skinner’s advice has become much more popular. We can motivate our children to do their chores with the ChoreMonster app. We can track our fitness with a FitBit or one of countless workout apps. We think we can make a game of anything.

And perhaps it really works. The most inane tasks – like lining up colored candies or sending villagers to pick apples– become addictive fast when the game offers the right rewards. Why not direct that energy towards something that really matters?

Joey J. Lee and Jessica Hammer suggest that school systems could make learning into a game:

"Games provide complex systems of rules for players to explore through active experimentation and discovery. For example, the apparently simple mobile game Angry Birds asks players to knock down towers by launching birds out of a slingshot. Players must experiment with the game to figure out the physical properties of different tower materials, the ballistics of the slingshot, and the structural weaknesses of each tower. They launch birds, observe the results, plan their next moves, and execute those plans. In short, players’ desire to beat each level makes them small-scale experimental physicists.

More broadly stated, games guide players through the mastery process and keep them engaged with potentially difficult tasks (Koster, 2004). …These techniques, applied to schools, can transform student perspectives on learning. Students in schools are often told what to do without understanding the larger benefits of the work. Gamification can help students ask, 'If I want to master school, what do I do next?' It gives students clear, actionable tasks and promises them immediate rewards instead of vague long-term benefits. In the best-designed games, the reward for solving a problem is a harder problem (Gee, 2008). Gamification hopes to make the same true for schools."

This concept of gamification goes far beyond Principal Skinner and his personal records. It invites us to engage in life as an experiment. If we want to master life, what do we do next? How can we see today’s problem as en exciting challenge, a reward for all the problems we’ve mastered before? I’d like the app for that.