This semester, especially as we’re looking at material by James Paul Gee, we’ll talk about incentives to mastery, reward, and cognition. This (fun! animated!) excerpt from a recent RSA presentation by Daniel Pink is an excellent introduction to an interesting behavioral problem that the best games address in surprising ways. The dilemma is this: Economists would generally have us believe that capital is always the best reward, and provides the greatest incentive. But as Pink explains (and as my friend, D. Linda Garcia, would have told you), it doesn’t always work that way.

As an aside: The RSA Animate series is marvelous — I hope that high schools are making use of these. It even makes Zizek’s unflagging misanthropy look like fun. (Although you should know that, in my own experience as his student — consistent with stories my colleagues tell — Slavoj Zizek is an earnest, warm, and generous man).