The VHS Collaborative Blog

After a conversation around rewarding students and faculty with badges, one of my co-workers sent me a presentation  by Sebastian Deterding. The entire presentation is interesting, but this comment from slide 27 has been turning around in my head since I read it:

"We play video games because we enjoy overcoming the challenges and puzzles they present us, raising the difficulty with our ability to keep it right at the point where it is neither boring nor frustrating. The joy and thrill of games lies between the tension of a challenge that has us bite our tongue and the release upon our successful resolution of that challenge."

This presentation talks about playing video games, but it sounds just like the learning process for anything - learning an instrument, a dance or sport, a craft, or academic subject.

As educators, how do we find and maintain that sweet spot for students where they are pushing themselves (or allowing us to push them) to the point just before they shut down?  Are we giving them authentic problems to solve? Do we assess in a way so students can realize progress?

As managers, how do we manage the work so the mundane, tedious tasks are balanced with intellectually stimulating projects? At what point do the scales tip from an employee saying, "let me take that on!" to "Ahhh, I'll never get all this done!"

• As employees, how do we develop personal insight to where our personal tipping points are so we can take on more without breaking ourselves and communicating constructively when we fall out of that zone on either end?
• What conversations happen or need to happen between teacher/student, manager/individual contributor, and within your own mind to keep the challenge and interest high enough to avoid tuning out or becoming overloaded?

Got suggestions? Share them in our discussion!