Back in the day of the feature phone, there wasn’t much to do on your phone except text and maybe play a game or two. However smartphones these days offers up so much more, allowing users to watch videos, surf the web, play games, check social networks, read the news, and more, which is why it doesn’t come as a surprise that students in classes these days are becoming more distracted.
However it seems that instead of sternly issuing a warning to students or maybe even confiscating their phones, some universities are trying to gamify it. This is thanks to an app called “Pocket Points” which basically awards students points as to how long they are able to keep their phones locked during their classes.
Students will have to launch the app during their class to begin the tracking, and the less they check their phones, the more points they get. Points are earned every 20 minutes, but the more students who are using the app, the faster the points are accumulated. These points can then be used towards getting free food or even discounts at local stores in a bid to encourage students to pay more attention in class and less attention on their mobile devices.
It’s an interesting experiment although we wouldn’t be surprised if some students are already trying to figure out how to beat the system, but what do you guys think?
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