Kids are jerks, but help me give them prizes

Myrmidon

Recently, I've managed to get Mario Teaches Typing on DOSBox and run a cute little preferences file that automagically mounts and starts the program... and install this on all the laptops at one of my schools. A couple of the teachers have taken to teaching their classes how to type using the game.

Awesome.

Some kids asked if there would be prizes for the fastest typist. This is a great idea. They're seventh grades.

What I'd like to do is have some sort of flash drive I can give the fastest typist with a game installer on it - minecraft would be perfect, but half the kids in the class already have it. Bastion would also be awesome, but I can't even evaluate standalone installers that can be run from a flash drive without first paying for the software (much as I love SuperGiant games, I've already bought three copies of Bastion!).

What other things can I put on a flash drive that kids would like?

Also, re:title - I asked the class who played minecraft in order to get a poll - then mentioned to one of the teachers that I would have chosen that for a prize if kids didn't already have it. One of the students heard and busted out "that's not a good enough prize! So cheap! Why not an iPad or something?" Spoiled little $#!&.

mertesn

How about a life lesson: not every task in life comes with a prize at the end.

Tushon

That's a real lesson: giving people prizes for tasks diminishes or completely removes the inherent value of the task. This effect is vastly reduced by less tangible prizes, like gold stars.

midga

Give the gift of freedom.

GHoosdum

You should order a broken iPad from eBay and give that as the prize.

Canti

Pretty cool what you've done but I'm honestly surprised they have a typing class for 7th graders in 2012. At this point isn't it one of those things you just learn to do like walk? Also what size is the flash drive? Also @Tushon is wrong. I will cut a bitch for a gold star.

Tushon

You're actually agreeing with me. The reward effect diminishes the inherent value when you have a highly tangible prize, like an iPad or $5. The inherent value is much less diminished when using intagible rewards, like gold stars or rainbow stickers with a unicorn on it. I would cut a bitch for a unicorn sticker right now ... hell, I'd settle for a real unicorn.

midga

Canti said:

Pretty cool what you've done but I'm honestly surprised they have a typing class for 7th graders in 2012. At this point isn't it one of those things you just learn to do like walk? Also what size is the flash drive? Also @Tushon is wrong. I will cut a bitch for a gold star.

Because our education system is sorely outdated and curriculum decisions are made by committees of out-of-touch, inertially-significant, ethnically-bleached geriatrics? It's not a horrible idea to have a class to make sure kids are all on the same level for it, but 7th grade is really really late considering the prevalence of the technology. Sorta like how we don't teach algebra until then. That shit should happen 4th grade, tops. Of course, one could also note that they're still teaching QWERTY even though that's a seriously outdated standard (that I use, but only because I don't want to retrain), but that's unlikely to dissociate from this society anytime soon, and my original statement applies.

Ilriyas

They taught us (my year) typing in second grade, surprised there are 7th grade classes for it.

As for prizes I agree with the gold star method, kids in my first grade class pummeled each other for the opportunity to get a gold star next to their name. In 4th grade kids bragged about the stickers they got on their homework and the kids I worked with (6th grade) genuinely worked hard in class because it came with the promise of a tesla coil demonstration at the end of the year. (They really loved my electricity presentations and the chance to see my uncles tesla coil in real life as opposed to a video got them all really motivated.)

bright

I think this is gamification, not sure if it's more game than typing but it's close enough if it isn't. Have a leaderboard, that might be better for 7th graders. Definitely don't give them tangible rewards, as that ruins the point of gamification.

@Canti: I had typing class in 6th, 8th, 10th, and 11th grade. Though that was of course a handful of years ago, and I did choose to have it myself.

Maybe have someone who is really good at typing do a 'race' with the class to show what better typing skills can do?

primesuspect

I agree with @bright. A leaderboard is far more motivational than a prize.

Jokke

Good points, gentlemen. In any kind of contest where there's just one prize for the best guy/gal I tend to give up, or choose not to participate because I think "I'm not getting the prize anyway, so why waste energy on this?" However, if there is a common prize, where everyone's a winner, I do my very best.

Myrmidon

A leaderboard is a good idea. That might be a good way to go.

As for the intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation statements, it doesn't sound like folks have the full picture:

Tushon said:

That's a real lesson: giving people prizes for tasks diminishes or completely removes the inherent value of the task. This effect is vastly reduced by less tangible prizes, like gold stars.

Kids have to have an intrinsic locus of control before intrinsic motivation sets in. Kids with extrinsic locuses (loci?) of control tend to suck at school and see all work as chores. One accepted method of solving this problem is to offer small extrinsic rewards, almost too small to matter. Kids with intrinsic locuses of control should experience only small undermining of their intrinsic motivation (this is the often-quoted "overjustification effect," and it's what Tushon is talking about), kids with external locuses of control, meanwhile, will have more intrinsic motivation than before if a small extrinsic reward is offered for a few times.

tl;dr, if you already are intrinsically motivated, rewards make the task suck. If you have no interest in the task, rewards make you more INTERNALLY interested the next time you do the task; but only if they're small... so I shouldn't use a flash drive with video games. Too big.

Meanwhile, does anyone have any good ideas for prizes?

PirateNinja

Candy

SpencerForHire

Candy + Computer lab = against most school policies...

Before there is any question on why kids do or do not already have the intrinsic motivation, ask their parents... You'll figure it out real quick.

@Myrmidon I think the leaderboard is a winner in my book. If you wanted to put a tangible factor onto it to further motivated, look into (cheap) trophies for the end of the year (unit). You could do certificates for the rest of the completing students.

JBoogaloo

As many here have said, I would definitely get a leaderboard type deal going and certainly take @Spencerforhire's idea with the end of the year (unit) prize into consideration. Maybe try and gauge what common interests the class has and make something along the lines of that interest the prize at the end?
Kudos to the acknowledgement of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, too

Funny, my first typing class was my freshmen year in high school ('94).

midga

1) Leaderboards can emphasize the poor typists, singling them out, just as much as it can emphasize the good typists. Just be careful you're not discouraging someone.

2) Certificates aren't a bad idea, but most students will just toss it.

Are you able to have music going in the classroom or something? Maybe let the students pick out the tracks, but winners get more tracks they can pick out. Or something like that. Something that's creative, mostly intangible, doesn't leave anyone out, but gives them something to work for. A feeling of control is a huge reward. Maybe use tickets. I seem to remember people really like getting tickets for achieving things, especially when they can use those tickets for stuff later.

GnomeQueen

If you do the leaderboard thing, I would "reset" it every so often. Otherwise, the same kids will continue to win every week.

Thrax

Diablo ladder resets: typing edition.

JBoogaloo

Reset after every unit maybe? Have little achievements like here where each student can earn badges in things of their own interest when it comes to typing. Not sure of the details on that one, but hey, ideas generate ideas

CB

JBoogaloo said:

achievements

CB

Blinders - Type an entire paragraph correctly with the screen off, and the box over the keyboard.
Way out in Front - hit 100 wpm for over 25 seconds
So Close it Hurts - take second place on the leaderboard 3 times

Thrax

Backspwhat?: Type x number of paragraphs without error.

Myrmidon

Achievements are the best idea I've ever heard.

primesuspect

drasnor

In my 7th grade typing class, the reward for typing fast was that you got your stuff done well before the end of class and could play video games the rest of the period. Also, I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't praise the ordinary: I've seen effusive praise lead to feelings of entitlement, deflated self-esteem following later lack of praise for similar performance, and numbness to praise.

shwaip

Hand out these to the overachievers, bring their performance back down to earth:
http://www.pocketshot.net/

SpencerForHire

drasnor said:

In my 7th grade typing class, the reward for typing fast was that you got your stuff done well before the end of class and could play video games the rest of the period. Also, I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't praise the ordinary: I've seen effusive praise lead to feelings of entitlement, deflated self-esteem following later lack of praise for similar performance, and numbness to praise.

And I've seen kids who receive zero praise for their hard work and efforts however ordinary their work may be, believe they are complete failures and go on to drop out of school or kill themselves.


It is not about how well they do but the effort put in. This is the same reason why racing to the finish also gives half-assed results despite the student getting done first.

Teramona

I think we're all missing the point here, which is that @Myrmidon is really cute.

Canti

Isn't that always the point? That and achievements.

Myrmidon

SpencerForHire said:

And I've seen kids who receive zero praise for their hard work and efforts however ordinary their work may be, believe they are complete failures and go on to drop out of school or kill themselves.


It is not about how well they do but the effort put in. This is the same reason why racing to the finish also gives half-assed results despite the student getting done first.

^This.

Kids are not black and white. They don't need praise for some things, do need it for others, and behavior can be shaped based on teacher reactions. That's one reason people study psychology - so we don't have to make silly black and white assumptions about what 'builds character' based on the single growing-up experience that we had ourselves. We can analyze scientific data and make smarter teaching choices.

So, I've built a leaderboard for these kids, but it occurred to me - I'm actually not sure how to run these achievements, short of WATCHING the kid do stuff (and it's a class of about 30 kids). Like, I think Thrax's backspwhat is hilarious, but hmm, how to tell...

This is a shortcoming of my own; I have NO IDEA how to program a script to run in the background and listen for keyboard interrupts. See how I am?