I like the idea behind The Fun Theory though I prefer the term Joie instead

I wonder how many of you have heard of this.  I first learned of it 5 years ago when a student I had then posted something which had the stairs as a keyboard example.  That was cool.  Are there things you think might be done to make our class more enjoyable?  And does one need technology for that?

The Fun Theory via kwout

Useful for first class - Do we know the best way to learn?

The following excerpt and link back to the original piece offers some food for thought.  Is the technique we use to promote learning really the best?  or not?  A related question, if the answer is that it is not the best technique, is why does the less good method persist?  Because an economics approach typically focuses on optimizing behavior and rationality of the participants, the only way that economics can explain is is for people's beliefs to be errant.  You might then ask yourself whether there are other sensible non-economics explanations for why such behavior persists.

Confuse Students to Help Them Learn - Teaching - The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout

Research on Motivation and Our Course

How to motivate members of an organization to behave in accord with the organization's goals is a key issue for our class.  Economic incentives, when viewed from the psychology perspective, fall within the family of what they term extrinsic motivation.  The piece excerpted below followed by a backlink to the article, argues that for deep learning intrinsic motivation is better.  It's a useful thought to have in mind during our course.  Then the question becomes - when is extrinsic motivation necessary and when does it get in the way of intrinsic motivation?  I hope that by the course's conclusion members of the class will have some sense of a good answer to that question.

The Secret of Effective Motivation - NYTimes.com via kwout