Gadgets, games and gizmos for learning (part 2)

Another nifty slogan from the book is to "Become a strategy guide" rather than aspire to be a "boss" or a "know-it-all dictator." He offers some general techniques to help facilitate the management of those gamers accustomed to boverthrowing "bosses" in their games: 1. Make rules, parameters, and goals explicit. 2) Allow for trial and error 3) Build a support and knowledge community 4) Encourage research 5) Assign multiple tasks to a gamer 6) Make tasks meaningful. As is the case with his advice on learning strategies, I think the techniques can be applied to the management of of many boomers and Gen X'ers.

After discussing ways to recruit gamers into the workplace (which is just a bit depressing given the current un and underemployment of college grads), Kapp offers advice on how best to sell gadgets, gizmos and gaming strategies for knowledge transfer to management. He offers three approaches: 1) Business case 2) Make gadgets and games look more corporate and 3) Slowly introduce games and gizmos into an organization so that no on realizes that you've been playful. No matter which approach is taken, it's important to focus on what is attractive to your organization's culture and know at what point in the "Games and Gadgets adoption continuum" , from pragmatist to connector to visionary,employees are located. I found this chapter particularly useful and liked the inclusion of data points designed to enhance business cases although they all could probably be updated by now.

Kapp ends his book with a discussion of Knowledge Requirements Planning, a process designed to ensure the translation of strategic knowledge goals into measurable learning objectives. He takes care to take into account the differences between boomers and gamers throughout the process.

Practicing what he preaches, Kapp turns his final chapter into a cheat sheet by summarizing the methods for making the knowledge transfer process between boomers and gamers more effective discussed in the book. I'll definitely use it as a quick reference guide.