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Analysing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy
Armando M. Toda ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2681-86981,2,
Ana C. T. Klock3,
Wilk Oliveira1,
Paula T. Palomino1,
Luiz Rodrigues1,
Lei Shi2,
Ig Bittencourt5,
Isabela Gasparini4,
Seiji Isotani1 &
Alexandra I. Cristea2
Smart Learning Environments volume 6, Article number: 16 (2019) Cite this article
Gamification has been widely employed in the educational domain over the past eight years when the term became a trend. However, the literature states that gamification still lacks formal definitions to support the design and analysis of gamified strategies. This paper analysed the game elements employed in gamified learning environments through a previously proposed and evaluated taxonomy while detailing and expanding this taxonomy. In the current paper, we describe our taxonomy in-depth as well as expand it. Our new structured results demonstrate an extension of the proposed taxonomy which results from this process, is divided into five dimensions, related to the learner and the learning environment. Our main contribution is the detailed taxonomy that can be used to design and evaluate gamification design in learning environments.
Gamification has been extensively used in educational environments and instructional practices (Dichev and Dicheva 2017) to enhance students' engagement and motivation through the employment of game design elements outside of a fully-fledged game (Barata et al. 2015; Deterding et al. 2011; Kapp 2012; Nand et al. 2019). While recognizing the available game elements and choosing which of them must be employed in gamified environments are not trivial tasks, some gamification frameworks are aiming to help designers with that. However, many of these frameworks have no common understanding of the set of game elements that can be used by gamified systems and the knowledge on how to apply them. (Dichev and Dicheva 2017; Klock et al. 2018b; Mora et al. 2015; Toda et al. 2018b). Besides, there are no naming conventions and the process to support which elements belong to gamification are other issues found in gamification literature in general, as they use different synonyms for the same game element, e.g., badges and trophies (Koivisto and Hamari 2019; Pedreira et al. 2015; Seaborn and Fels 2014).
All these hinder the adoption of gamification by teachers and instructors, since recent studies demonstrated that these specialists have interest in using gamification but does not have time or resources to make sense of differences and similarities in deciding which game elements to use, as well as which game elements are more appropriate in educational context (Martí-Parreño et al. 2016; Sánchez-Mena and Martí-Parreño 2016; Toda et al. 2018a). Aiming to solve this problem, an initial taxonomy of game elements for gamified educational environments was proposed and evaluated [omitted for blind review]. We defined a poll of 21 game elements, alongside their synonyms, and validated them through two surveys with experts in the field of gamification in education. However, the initial taxonomy did not present how these elements could be grouped and organised in a way that could guide researchers, designers and instructors to use them more efficiently. Here, as an extension of a previous study, we propose to answer a more practical research question "How can we use the proposed taxonomy to analyse and evaluate gamified educational environments?". By answering this research question, our contributions include:
improving the existing taxonomy, by providing details on the selection, description, and use of these elements to evaluate and analyse existing systems;
proposing recommendations on how to hierarchically organise these elements semantically, to be used by designers, teachers, and other education stakeholders.
Gamification frameworks are not a novelty nowadays, and recent literature reviews have mapped more than 50 frameworks focused on how to design gamification in a specific or broad context (Azouz and Lefdaoui 2018; Mora et al. 2017). However, only a few of them were focused on education and learning contexts (less than 10). Following the nomenclature issue previously described, these frameworks proposed different concepts with similar descriptions: while "a title attributed to the player that he can use to compare with others" is called Social Status by Marczewski (2015), it is a Classification in Dignan (2011). In this section, we present some existing taxonomies based on their adoption and the context of the framework/taxonomy.
Concerned with general contexts, which are frameworks that were created for general purposes, we have the taxonomy proposed in six steps to gamification (6D) (Werbach and Hunter 2012) presenting a hierarchy of game elements using Dynamics, Mechanics and Components, based on the MDA framework (Hunicke et al. 2004). In this classification, the top of the hierarchy is composed of the Dynamics, which are the abstractions related to the task that is being gamified. These Dynamics used to create the motivation to perform the task and are manifested via Mechanics. The Mechanics are the processes used to drive the users' actions and are presented through the Components. Finally, these components are extrinsic rewards and feedback features like points, badges, etc. The taxonomy presented in the 6D framework, however, does not provide the user with clear strategies on how to combine these elements properly. Also, being a general framework, it lacks instances on educational environments, validated empirically.
Next, we have the GAME framework (Marczewski 2015) which provides an extensive periodic table of gamification elements (n = 52). Their taxonomy is divided by player profiles (n = 8), where these elements may work better based on the users' player profile. In this framework, we can already observe some similarities with the concepts proposed in Werbach. In the GAME framework, the Progress/Feedback is treated as a component that may engage general contexts, while in the 6D Progress is treated as a dynamic and Feedback as a Mechanic.
As for the frameworks used in the educational context, we opted to choose recent ones that were instanced.Footnote 1 The framework proposed by Klock et al. (2016) consists of 7 steps to aid the design of adaptive gamification in e-learning environments. In this framework, the authors use a set of 14 gamification elements based on 6D and apply it to develop an adaptive e-learning system. Another recent taxonomy is presented in the work of Toda et al. (2018a) where the authors propose a framework focused on teachers and instructors. The game elements in this work are divided into Feedback and Property. The Feedback elements are the ones that can be used as feedback, and the Property is characteristics and objectives for the educational task. The authors define a poll of 19 gamification elements and provide some strategies (based on existing literature) on their use. However, both taxonomies were not validated.
Finally, none of the taxonomies that were presented explicit ways on how to analyse those elements in learning environments nor how to analyse these elements. An overview can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1 Related works comparison
As explained in [omitted for blind review], the game elements were collected, analysed and defined by the authors, then evaluated by gamification experts.Footnote 2 The collection was based on a literature review made by the authors, where they analysed the nomenclature of other gamification frameworks and analysed the concepts that were presented. Based on semantic analysis, we defined a set of 21 gamification elements that could be used in educational systems. After the initial definition, we designed an evaluation focusing on five variables:
Comprehensibility: the standardised concept for the group of game elements, the "name".
Description: the concept definition.
Relevance: the relevance of that element in the overall taxonomy.
Examples: the examples tied to the definition and concept.
Coverage: the representation of the overall taxonomy. If this set of 21 elements represent and cover well the game elements needed for educational applications.
In this paper, we focus on expanding the descriptions of the gamification elements that were presented, and choose some existing gamified educational environments, based on their popularity and presence in research papers, to analyse these elements have been applied and interpret why, since this can be used to support designers to select the most appropriate game elements in their environments. The use of the taxonomy to support the process of analysis and evaluation was supervised by five gamification experts, that would analyse the systems and match with the elements in our taxonomy.
Following, we focused on expanding the concepts, by giving examples of how these elements are represented in the literature, as well as advantages and disadvantages in employing them. Finally, we proposed a new hierarchical classification for these elements, that can support designers and developers to choose which elements to use in the make of gamified strategies.Footnote 3 This classification was designed starting by identifying five dimensions, each one associated with an aspect of the environment. To design these dimensions, the concepts were analysed on a semantic level and discussed amongst at least five researchers. The complete process can be seen in Fig. 1.
Method adapted from Toda et al. (2019b) and the extension
This section describes the definitions of the taxonomy, some synonyms, and examples of how each element can be applied in an educational environment and some advantages and disadvantages in its use. We also propose an initial definition of extrinsic (when an element is presented in a way that the user can perceive it clearly and objectively) and intrinsic elements (which is an element presented in a subtle way that the user may not notice when interacting with the environment). An overall of the new taxonomy can be seen in Fig. 2.
Gamification Taxonomy
Description of the five dimensions
Extending the initial taxonomy, we propose a classification using five dimensions to group the previously defined gamification elements. Each element was analysed by at least five experts to group each in the appropriate dimension, e.g.: When analysing the Point element, the experts noticed that it was an extrinsic feedback element, that is given when the learner executes a certain action within the environment. Since it is given to the learner as a form of feedback, it would be appropriate to classify it as part of the Performance/Measurement dimension. We describe the dimensions as follows.
Performance / measurement
These are elements related to the environment response, which can be used to provide feedback to the learner. In this dimension we have Point, Progression, Level, Stats and Acknowledgement. Lack of this dimension means that the student may feel disoriented as their actions does not have any kind of feedback.
Acknowledgement: also known as badges, medals, trophies and achievements. It is a kind of extrinsic feedback that praises the players' specific set of actions, e.g. completing a certain number of problems may lead them to earn a "Solver" badge; finishing a task in a predefined time limit may earn them a "Flash" trophy; making a certain number of interactions with other students may give them a "Socialiser" achievement; making a certain number of contributions may earn them a "Contributor" badge. Acknowledgement is one of the most used elements in gamified applications (Klock et al. 2018a; Koivisto and Hamari 2019; Toda et al. 2018b).
Level: also known as skill level, character level etc. This is related to an extrinsic hierarchical layer that provides the user new advantages as they advance in the environment, e.g. the students gain a level every time they complete a certain number of tasks, when they advance their level, they have access to more challenging tasks.
Progression: also known as progress bars, steps, maps. Provides an extrinsic guidance to the users of their advance in the environment, allowing these users to locate themselves.
Point: also known as scores, experience points, skill points, etc. It is a simple way to provide extrinsic feedback to the users' actions. Point is the most basic concept found in almost all gamified applications (Dichev and Dicheva 2017).
Stats: also known as information, Head Up Display (HUD) and data. It is related to the visual information provided by the environment to the learner (extrinsic), e.g. how many tasks they completed or overall stats on the environment. In virtual environments this can also be dashboards.
This context is related to the environment that the gamification is being implemented. These elements can be represented as properties. The elements in this dimension are Chance, Imposed Choice, Economy, Rarity and Time Pressure. The lack of Ecological elements makes the environment feel dull, as it does not have elements that produce interactions with the user.
Chance: also known as randomness, luck, fortune or probability. This intrinsic concept is related to the random property of a certain event or outcome, e.g. the student may get a random number of points after completing a task; spinning a roulette that may give the user a bonus; user has a probability of getting a special item based on its luck (Dignan 2011).
Imposed choice: also known as choice, judgment, and paths. This extrinsic concept occurs when the player faces an explicit decision that they must make to advance in the environment. An example of this concept is to present the user two different contents and make them choose one or another, blocking their advance if a choice is not to pick.
Economy: also known as transactions, market, exchange. This concept is extrinsically related to any transaction that may occur in the environment. Examples are trading points for advantages within the environment and related to the content.
Rarity: also known as limited items, collection, exclusivity. It is related to extrinsically limited resources within the environment which can stimulate the learners through a specific goal.
Time Pressure: also represented as countdown timers or clocks. It is related to time itself used to pressure the learners' actions (extrinsic). In learning environments, this can be represented also as deadlines. It is, alongside Social Pressure, considered one of the most irrelevant elements since it can potentially disengage the learner (Toda et al. 2019b).
This dimension is related to the interactions between the learners presented in the environment. The elements in this dimension are Competition, Cooperation, Reputation, Social Pressure. The lack of Social elements can isolate the students, since they will not be able to interact with other students.
Competition: also known as conflict, leader boards, scoreboards, player vs player, etc. It's an intrinsic concept, tied to a challenge where the user faces another user to achieve a common goal, e.g. using scoreboards based on the number of points, badges, levels, etc.
Cooperation: also known as teamwork, co-op, groups, etc. It is also an intrinsic concept (related to a task) where the users must collaborate to achieve a common goal, can be considered the opposite of competition (however, both concepts can be used together). Examples of cooperation are tasks where groups interact with each other and are recognised by these interactions (Shi et al. 2014).
Reputation: also known as classification, status. It is related to titles that the learner may gain and accumulate within the environment (intrinsic). Differing from levels, titles represent more of a social status which does not necessarily reflect on the learners' skills. These titles are usually used within communities to create a hierarchy in the environment.
Social Pressure: Also known as peer pressure or guild missions. This intrinsic concept is related to social interactions that exert pressure on the learner.
This dimension is related to the learner that is using the environment. The elements that are used in this dimension are Sensation, Objective, Puzzle, Novelty, and Renovation. The lack of Personal elements can make the user feel demotivated since the system does not provide meaning for the student.
Novelty: also known as an update, surprise, changes, etc. It is intrinsically related to the updates that occur within the environment, by adding new information, content or even new game elements. It is a good strategy to keep users within the environment to avoid stagnation since longitudinal studies on gamification have shown that a static approach (without updates) may cause disengagement and demotivation (Hanus and Fox 2014).
Objectives: also known as missions, side-quests, milestones, etc. This intrinsic concept is related to goals, it provides the player an end, or a purpose to perform the required tasks. Examples on the use of Objective can be broadened (as getting approved in the course) or more specific (as obtaining a certain score in a task) (Toda et al. 2018a).
Puzzle: also known as challenges, cognitive tasks, actual puzzles, etc. This intrinsic concept is related to the activities that are implemented within the environment, they can be tied or considered as the learning activities since the focus is to provide a cognitive challenge to the learner. This concept is also implicitly present in all educational environments, through quizzes or challenges.
Renovation: also known as boosts, extra life, renewal, etc. This concept is intrinsically related to the property of re-doing a task, event or any of the sorts. It allows the learner a second chance after they fail a task. It is one of the properties that makes games fun (Lee and Hammer 2011).
Sensation: This is either visual or sound stimulation, etc. It is related to the use of learners' senses to improve the experience (intrinsic). This can be done through dynamic and gameful interfaces, Virtual Reality (VR) and/or Augmented Reality (AR).
It is the mixed dimension that is related to the user (through Narrative) and the environment (through Storytelling), tying their experience with the context. The lack of Fictional elements causes the loss of meaning, of context, that is, the why, within the immersive environment, the user must perform any task, as well as directly influence the quality of the user experience.
Narrative: also known as karma system, implicit decisions, etc. This intrinsic concept is the order of events as they happen in the game, through the user experience. This experience is influenced by implicit choices made by the user. Examples of this are giving a small token of appreciation to the students that opt to interact with other students, subtly and discreetly (Palomino et al. 2019).
Storytelling: can be seen as audio queues, text stories, etc. It is the way the story of the environment is told (as a script). It is told through text, voice, or sensorial resources. It is highly used as a tool to support the narrative within an environment (Palomino et al. 2019).
Example on the use of the taxonomy
To demonstrate the analysis and evaluation of these elements, we choose some e-learning environments that are cited and evaluated in the literature (Klock et al. 2017) as Duolingo and MeuTutor. We opted initially for these two for: (a) one is one of the most successful examples of gamification in education and (b) the other due to convenience since we had access to all the functionalities of the system and its design process (convenience sampling).
Duolingo is one of the most famous language apps nowadays and most of its success is due to the gamification that was implemented. According to (Huynh et al. 2016) the main elements of Duolingo are Rewards, Leader-boards, Level-system, and Badges. When analysing these elements, we can observe that other elements from our taxonomy are presented, e.g. Rewards are represented through Lingots, which is a currency obtained when you finish a task. These Lingots can be used in the transaction in the system (Economy); the Leader-boards are used to create a Competition amongst the user and their friends. The Level-system contains four elements: experience points (Point), the content the user chooses when they are learning the language (Imposed Choice), the level they are in the language (Progression) and the user skills (Level). Finally, the Badges are a representation of Acknowledgement and can be used in the player profile to increase their Reputation. Besides these elements, we can observe all of the Personal dimension since the site appeals visually to the user (Sensation), providing them a clear Objective (learning languages), achieved through cognitive tasks (Puzzles), presenting new content (Novelty) and allowing them to redo any task as the user wants (Renovation).
By using our taxonomy, we can observe that Duolingo presents a solid Personal (All 5) and Measurement (4 elements) dimensions, some Ecological and Social aspects underneath the system (2 elements each) and no Fiction element.
Following, MeuTutor is an Intelligent Tutoring System used in more than 10 schools in Brazil. The system contains many gamification elements to improve learners' engagement and motivation. According to the description of the system, MeuTutor gamification is based on: learners' being exposed to learning resources and gaining experience points for their interactions (Point), which is converted into the learners' Level. The content is presented similarly as Duolingo where the learner must choose a topic to continue using the system (Imposed Choice). The learners' can see their progress in the course through a completion percentage (Progression) and gain badges based on their interactions (Acknowledgement), these learners can also see an overall of their performance in a personalised dashboard (Stats). The system also presents a leader-board to create a Competition amongst its users and collaborative activities, where the learners can create groups to perform a task (Cooperation). MeuTutor also presents all the elements in the Personal Dimension, since it has a clear Objective (improve learners' knowledge on a certain content), achieved through many learning tasks (Puzzles) that can be updated as the teacher desires (Novelty). The system also allows the learner to re-do previous tasks (however this Renovation does not add to their experience points) and has an interface that is attractive to the final users (Sensation).
Through our taxonomy, we can observe that MeuTutor contain a solid Personal and Measurement dimension (All 5 elements of each dimension), it also presents two elements from the Social dimension but does not explore their efficacy, and one element in the Ecological dimension. Also, no Fictional element is present in this environment.
These new dimensions might provide a way to analyse and/or support the design of gamified learning environments. We can also assure that it is aligned with the agenda defined in (Koivisto and Hamari 2019) which states that gamification studies should pay more attention to different types of feedback, as well as exploring and incorporating context and defining universal taxonomies. By creating an initial generalisation of exiting game elements and adapting them to educational contexts, we can infer that instructors and future research may find easier to analyse existing systems and extract the gamification elements within it. Based on the exposed elements, this section will discuss the implications of using each in an educational environment.
Measurement dimension
This Dimension, as shown in the examples, must always be present so the user may have feedback on their actions. Concerning the game elements in this Dimension, the lack of Acknowledgement may lead the user to a state of frustration, since their interactions are not being recognised as something important, whereas providing acknowledgements not properly planned may cause unexpected outcomes (e.g., earning badges based on time to finish a task may lead the students to complete tasks as fast as possible without taking into account whether they are correct). As for Level, it is considered a relevant element, especially when tied to Progression, according to (Toda et al. 2019a). Lack of levels may lead the learner to think that they did not advance at all in their skills. Following, according to (Toda et al. 2019a), Progression is also considered a highly relevant element to learners, independent of gender. Lack of progression might lead the learner to a feeling of frustration and anxiety (Dignan 2011). Finally, Stats is also presented in almost all educational environments, the lack of information makes the learner feel disoriented (Dignan 2011). Although, the literature on this topic still hasn't reached a consensus on the best way to relate or use these elements properly.
Ecological dimension
Concerning this Dimension, it is related to concepts that act as properties of the environment that can be implemented in a subtle way to engage the users to follow the desired behaviour. They can be supported by the elements in the Measurement/Feedback Dimension, to ensure the behaviour is followed. Although, most of these elements must be designed with care since they can affect the learners' interactions drastically. Chance is directly affected by the users' luck; some strategies can be used to mitigate the "bad luck" effect as including an automatic success after a certain number of tries. When the Economy is not related to the content, the user may lose focus on what is important (Snow et al. 2015). Although, the users might find attractive when the Economy is tied directly to advantages related to the class, e.g. using their coins to postpone a test (Toda et al. 2016). Lack of Imposed Choice within the system might lead the learner to a state where they feel their actions are not meaningful (Dignan 2011), at the same time excessive freedom may allow the students to perform undesired actions. As for Rarity, the addition of limited events that rewards exclusive badges or another kind of feedback may engage the learners, but the presence of rare resources and their constraints might demotivate the learners. Lack of rarity may lead the learner to boredom (Dignan 2011) Finally, the absence of Time Pressure may lead the learner to a state of boredom since they might not feel challenged or pressured to complete a task (Dignan 2011). An example of using time pressure more healthily is to provide flexible deadlines, where the learner is responsible for the completion of the task. Time pressure is implicit in Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) systems, which may be one of the reasons why the dropout rates are high (Cristea et al. 2018).
This Dimension is concerned with the Social aspects of the environment. The elements that connect people and influence their behaviour towards a task. Since this Dimension is concerned with interactions between the learners (instead of interactions with the system) it must be designed carefully. On one hand, Competition can create a healthy environment where the learners try to overcome their peers to achieve a certain prize, on the other hand, it has a huge potential to demotivate the learner when their performance is not as expected. An example on how to design a good competition is trying not to tie it to any content-based activity, or by creating groups to mitigate any kind of isolation effectFootnote 4 (Papadopoulos et al. 2016; Toda et al. 2018a). Cooperation is seen as a positive addition in most educational environments, although its implementation may be complex. The absence of Cooperation may lead to isolation, which may increase the odds of demotivation or disengagement of the learner, whereas using it may lead the students to share knowledge and to work harder in order to avoid jeopardising their peers. One of the major examples of success in Cooperation is Wikipedia. Reputation is related to the social status the learners may acquire in the environment, e.g. Best Student in the course. Lack of reputation is similar to the lack of acknowledgment and point, where the learner may feel their actions are not meaningful (Dignan 2011), but also must be designed with care or learners might feel demotivated due to not acquiring a certain status. Finally, Social Pressure is usually considered as one of the most irrelevant amongst all elements (Toda et al. 2019a) but can be helpful if properly designed, e.g. persuading a high score learner to encourage a disengaged peer that has a poor performance. Assigning peer-review activities might also imply social pressure.
Personal dimension
This dimension is directly related to the learner using the environment. It presents elements that are intrinsic to educational environments and the learner might not perceive these elements as gamification. According to our analysis, all educational environments contained the five elements of this dimension, however, some of them (e.g. MeuTutor) did not use these elements in a way that could favour the learner (e.g. the Renovation element is present, but the student does not gain more points by redoing a task). Concerning each element, Objective is presented in all educational environments, since the main focus of these applications is to make the student learn or practice a concept, whilst being cautious not to encourage undesired behaviours (e.g., an objective of completing many tasks may lead students to complete numerous of those without properly seeking to correctly complete them). Lack of objectives may misguide or confuse the learner. According to Toda et al. (2019a), it is the most relevant element to use within gamified educational environments. Besides, as repetition or static environmentsFootnote 5 may jeopardise the learning process, Novelty may aid in this perspective as well (Mustafa et al. 2019). However, adding Novelty can be complex as it often requires human effort or automatic generation techniques (Shehadeh et al. 2017). As for the Puzzle, it is represented through challenges and cognitive tasks, which are common to any educational environment. Lack of Puzzle can make the environment look dull and demotivate the user (e.g. an environment where the learner can only watch videos without any kind of interaction or tasks related to it may lead these learners to boredom.). Renovation is also a concept that is present in almost all educational environments since learners can redo a task if they fail, or just want to remember a concept (e.g. rewatching a video or redoing a task). Although, Renovation is not always presented as a gamification element since the user does not benefit from using it (e.g. gaining points by rewatching a video). Lack of Renovation usually make learning environments to feel more difficult which can demotivate the students. In most nonvirtual educational environments, the lack of Renovation is what makes the educational process tedious to learners (Smith-Robbins 2011). Finally, Sensation is usually presented as a pleasant interface that is appealing to the user. Although some educational environments are investing in the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) with gamification features, it is still a new emergent area. According to Toda et al. (2019a), Sensation is considered a highly relevant element.
Fiction dimension
Considering this Dimension, it is not common or considered when designing gamified educational environments (Palomino et al. 2019). This occurs since most gamification frameworks do not make a differentiation between Narrative different layers and Storytelling. The Narrative is related to the learner's interaction with the system, affected by their characteristics. If designed correctly, it can help the learner to focus on the content rather than the game elements around it. Storytelling is a way to materialise the Narrative, using techniques with the aid of text, audio-visual and another sensorial stimulus, stabilising how the story (or context) is told. The absence of Narrative may hinder the students' engagement and focus on the content to be learned. As for the lack of Storytelling, it might lead to context confusion, causing the student to not see a reason to perform a certain task from the gamification point of view. Storytelling can be used to give a context (e.g. a theme) to the environment, e.g. telling the learner they are fighting a boss that takes damage for each correct task.
Conclusions and future works
This work presented how we could use an existing taxonomy to analyse and evaluate gamified systems. We improved the description of the game elements as well as provide examples on how to use each to analyse educational systems. We also proposed an initial hierarchy to classify those elements into Five Dimensions, which can provide support to designers and developers of educational environments. Finally, we proposed a link between this hierarchy and aspects such as feedback, user interaction, and motivation.
Through our discussions, we debate some advantages and disadvantages of using each Dimension. Some limitations of the current work are that we did not evaluate the acceptance of the new grouped dimensions with experts, but with five researchers only due to time constraints. Finally, as future work, we intend to explore the learners' perception of this taxonomy to identify the best practices on how to use the elements properly (by using data-driven approaches and/or machine learning algorithms). Through this future exploration, we believe we may find concrete guidelines on how to gamify educational environments and give those guidelines to teachers, instructors, designers and/or developers.
All the materials and data are available within the paper.
By instanced, we mean that they were applied and evaluated in a real educational context
Most of the experts were also teachers and researchers
A Gamified strategy is a task, with a goal, that contains game-like elements (A. M. Toda, do Carmo, et al., 2018).
Where a student feels they are not good enough and stop doing the activities
Environments that do not receive updates
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Klock, A. C. T., Ogawa, A. N., Gasparini, I., & Pimenta, M. S. (2018a). Does gamification matter? A systematic mapping about the evaluation of gamification in educational environments. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (pp. 2006–2012). New York: ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3167132.3167347.
Klock, A. C. T., Ogawa, A. N., Gasparini, I., & Pimenta, M. S. (2018b). Integration of learning analytics techniques and gamification: An experimental study. In Proceedings - IEEE 18th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, ICALT 2018 (pp. 133–137). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2018.00039.
Koivisto, J., & Hamari, J. (2019, April 1). The rise of motivational information systems: A review of gamification research. International Journal of Information Management. Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.10.013.
Lee, J. J., & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in education: What, how, why bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15, 1–5 Retrieved from http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3714308.
Marczewski, A. (2015). Even ninja monkeys like to play: Gamification, game thinking and motivational design. In Gamified UK (pp. 65–80). Gamified UK.
Martí-Parreño, J., Seguí-Mas, D., & Seguí-Mas, E. (2016). Teachers' attitude towards and actual use of Gamification. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 682–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.104.
Mora, A., Riera, D., Gonzalez, C., & Arnedo-Moreno, J. (2015). A literature review of Gamification design frameworks. In 2015 7th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-Games) (pp. 1–8). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2015.7295760.
Mora, A., Riera, D., González, C., & Arnedo-Moreno, J. (2017). Gamification: A systematic review of design frameworks. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-017-9150-4.
Mustafa, G., Abbas, M. A., Hafeez, Y., Khan, S., & Hwang, G. J. (2019). Effectiveness of ontology-based learning content generation for preschool cognitive skills learning. Interactive Learning Environments, 27(4), 443–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2018.1484772.
Nand, K., Baghaei, N., Casey, J., Barmada, B., Mehdipour, F., & Liang, H.-N. (2019). Engaging children with educational content via Gamification. Smart Learning Environments, 6(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-019-0085-2.
Palomino, P. T., Toda, A. M., dos Santos, W. O., Cristea, A. I., & Isotani, S. (2019). Narrative for gamification in education: Why should you care? In Proceedings of the 19th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.
Papadopoulos, P. M., Lagkas, T., & Demetriadis, S. N. (2016). How revealing rankings affects student attitude and performance in a peer review learning environment. In Communications in Computer and Information Science (Vol. 583, pp. 225–240). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29585-5_13.
Pedreira, O., García, F., Brisaboa, N., & Piattini, M. (2015). Gamification in software engineering - A systematic mapping. Inf. Softw. Technol., 57(1), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2014.08.007.
Sánchez-Mena, A., & Martí-Parreño, J. (2016). Gamification in higher education: Teachers' drivers and barriers. Proceedings of the International Conference of The Future of Education, (July).
Seaborn, K., & Fels, D. I. (2014). Gamification in theory and action: A survey. Internatoinal Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 74, 14–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.09.006.
Shehadeh, A., Felfernig, A., Stettinger, M., Jeran, M., & Reiterer, S. (2017). Automated learning content generation from knowledge bases in the STUDYBATTLES environment. In International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (Vol. 27, pp. 1387–1408). https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218194017400022.
Shi, L., Cristea, A. I., Hadzidedic, S., & Dervishalidovic, N. (2014). Contextual Gamification of social interaction – Towards increasing motivation in social E-learning. In ICWL 2014 (Vol. 8613, pp. 116–122). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a53e/464fb4bc6326c217d77b38496169f7b52686.pdf
Smith-Robbins, S. (2011). This game sucks: How to improve the Gamification of education. Educ. Rev., 46(1), 58–59. https://doi.org/10.1109/IEMBS.2005.1616259.
Snow, E. L., Allen, L. K., Jackson, G. T., & McNamara, D. S. (2015). Spendency: Students' propensity to use system currency. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 25(3), 407–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-015-0044-1.
Toda, A., Silva, Y., Cruz, W., Xavier, L., Isotani, S., Rafael, Y., … Isotani, S. (2016). Um processo de Gamificação para o ensino superior: Experiências em um módulo de Bioquímica. In Anais do Workshop de Informática na Escola (Vol. 22, p. 495). https://doi.org/10.5753/cbie.wie.2016.495.
Toda, A. M., do Carmo, R. M. C., da Silva, A. P., Bittencourt, I. I., & Isotani, S. (2018a). An approach for planning and deploying gamification concepts with social networks within educational contexts. International Journal of Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJINFOMGT.2018.10.001.
Toda, A. M., Oliveira, W., Klock, A. C., Palomino, P. T., Pimenta, M., Gasparini, I., … Cristea, A. I. (2019a). A taxonomy of game elements for Gamification in educational contexts : Proposal and evaluation. 19th international conference on advanced learning technologies - in press, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2019.00028.
Toda, A. M., Oliveira, W., Shi, L., Bittencourt, I., Isotani, S., & Cristea, A. (2019b). Planning Gamification strategies based on user characteristics and DM : A gender-based case study. In Proceedings of the Educational Data Mining 2019 conference (pp. 438–443). Montréal. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1905.09146
Toda, A. M., Valle, P. H. D. D., & Isotani, S. (2018b). The dark side of Gamification: An overview of negative effects of Gamification in education. In Communications in Computer and Information Science (Vol. 832, pp. 143–156). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97934-2_9.
Werbach, K., & Hunter, D. (2012). For the win: How game thinking can revolutionize your business. Wharton Digital Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=abg0SnK3XdMC&pgis=1
The authors would like to thank the funding provided by FAPESP (Projects 2016/02765-2; 2018/11180-3; 2018/15917-0; 2018/07688-1), FAPESC (public call FAPESC/CNPq No. 06/2016 support the infrastructure of CTI for young researchers, project T.O. No.: 2017TR1755 - Ambientes Inteligentes Educacionais com Integração de Técnicas de Learning Analytics e de Gamificação) and CNPq. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) Finance Code 001.
This project was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal e Nível Superior (CAPES).
Universidade de Sao Paulo - Av. Trab. Sao Carlense, 400, zip code, Sao Carlos, SP, 13566-590, Brazil
Armando M. Toda
, Wilk Oliveira
, Paula T. Palomino
, Luiz Rodrigues
& Seiji Isotani
Durham University - Lower Mountjoy South Road Durham, zip code, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
, Lei Shi
& Alexandra I. Cristea
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, zip code, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, Brazil
Ana C. T. Klock
Santa Catarina State University - Zona Industrial Norte, zip code, Joinville, SC, 89219-710, Brazil
Isabela Gasparini
Federal Univeristy of Alagoas - Av. Lourival Melo Mota, zip code, Maceió, AL, 57072-900, Brazil
Ig Bittencourt
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The taxonomy was proposed by AMT, ACTK, WO, LR, PTP and AIC. The visual representation was designed by PTP. The study design was proposed by AMT, ACTK, IG and AIC. AIC, SI, IB, LS and IG supervised the activities and wrote parts of and reviewed the paper for final submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Armando M. Toda.
The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests.
Toda, A.M., Klock, A.C.T., Oliveira, W. et al. Analysing gamification elements in educational environments using an existing Gamification taxonomy. Smart Learn. Environ. 6, 16 (2019) doi:10.1186/s40561-019-0106-1


text:
Pick Me Up is an encyclopedic non-fiction book primarily intended for children. As the cover states, it is a collection of "Stuff you need to know". Pick Me Up is arranged into eight categories. These are: Science, Technology and Space; Society, Places and Beliefs; History; The Natural World; People Who Made the World; Arts, Entertainment and Media; You and Your Body; and Planet Earth. Each category has 10–40 separate articles. Pick Me Up was created by David Roberts and Jeremy Leslie. The articles within Pick Me Up were written by more than 20 different writers.

Design
Pick Me Up is designed unconventionally, using striking headlines to articles to grab attention. For example, "Was Beethoven a punk?". It then discusses why some people would think of him as a punk. It will also have several articles per page all related to one topic but not each other. It also uses different approaches to a topic. For example, instead of writing several articles about different animals, Pick Me Up discusses what animal is man's best friend.

See also

Do Not Open

2006 children's books
Children's encyclopedias
DK (publisher) books

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Get yourself a 6.4GB hard drive, leave the current Windows hard drive where it is, disconnect the power connector and IDE ribbon cable from the Windows hard drive, connect up the clean 6.4GB hard drive, and install VectorLinux on it, just as if the Windows drive doesnt exist. When youre through playing with VectorLinux, disconnect it, then reconnect the Windows hard drive, and the computer will never know you made the switch.
And where would one find such a small drive today? If you have a collection of old computer stuff, maybe there's a drive available. But it's been a very long time since such small drives were sold.
When youre through playing with VectorLinux, disconnect it, then reconnect the Windows hard drive, and the computer will never know you made the switch.
Okay for an initial tryout, maybe, but all that plugging and unplugging is both a pain in the rear and stressful for the connectors and the cable if it's done often. You forgot about opening the case, which to my mind is the worst part of the whole deal. If you leave it off all the time you get too much dust in there and you may disrupt air flow for cooling. Plus things are louder if they're not in a closed case and you may have some interference with other electronics in the house.
10 gigs is ample for programs but is most certainly not enough if you have a lot of music files, digital photos, and videos. I just replaced a 200-gig drive with a 500-gig drive because things were getting a little tight on the 200-gig drive.


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The Ingalls Family
The Historic Sites
The TV Show
The Mini-Series
The Beautiful Snow
May 28, 2021 By Little House on the Prairie
This may contain affiliate links and we may receive a small commission on purchases.
Our articles about recently released books are good resources for readers interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. Here is a brief overview of The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, The Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81.
Author: Cindy Wilson
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press (February 7, 2020)
The Long Winter is one of the most memorable novels in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. It beautifully details the dramatic events of The Hard Winter of 1880-81, a harrowing time with months of never-ending blizzards leading to railroad blockades that all but cut off fledgling communities. But what really happened that winter? Lively and rewarding, The Beautiful Snow is a new look at The Hard Winter.
Pulling from nearly three thousand regional newspaper articles, The Beautiful Snow weaves the historical record around and through Wilder's fictionalized account. From the tireless efforts to dig out the railroad blockades, to lavish oyster parties, to carefully spun boosterism, The Hard Winter comes to life with extraordinary tales of survival, resilience, and defiance that add rich context to Wilder's beloved novel.
About the Author: Cindy Wilson
Cindy Wilson fell in love with the Little House books in third grade, when she selected On the Banks of Plum Creek from the library. The series captivated her then and has ever since, with The Long Winter still being her favorite.
An American studies major at the University of Minnesota and a charter member of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association, Cindy is passionate about history and enchanted by the prairie landscape. When not meticulously poring over newspaper archives, she enjoys traveling, delving into architecture, creating art quilts, reading, hiking, biking, gardening, or going out to watch storms as a trained weather spotter for the National Weather Service. She especially treasures time with her daughter, Laura, who at any given moment is living in some remote corner of the globe, exploring other cultures and histories.
While Cindy's soul is most refreshed in South Dakota, she lives in southern Minnesota. And while she spent two years immersed in the Hard Winter of 1880-81, her ideal day is actually eighty degrees with a smidge of humidity.
Pick up your own copy of The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, The Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81 here.
Check out our Recommended Reading for Adults and Recommended Reading for Children & Young Adults for more great books and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for information and recommendations about interesting reading and activities.
Filed Under: Recommended Reading, Resources Tagged With: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House Books, Little House on the Prairie, Non-fiction, Reading, Recommended Reading, Spiritual, Stephen Hines, Stephen W. Hines
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text:
Private Equity Firm HGGC Buys Majority Stake In StrongView
by Ryan Joe // Monday, September 21st, 2015 – 5:30 pm
Once again, a private equity firm has bought a majority stake in a marketing tech company.
Email marketing solutions provider StrongView will get a strategic growth investment from private equity firm HGGC. The deal is expected to close in 30 days, and financial terms weren't announced. Read the release.
HGGC has a solid background in marketing tech investment. It's known for grooming ecommerce platform hybris for its $1 billion sale to SAP and, in July, it invested an undisclosed amount into European marketing automation company Selligent.
And like Selligent, StrongView will use HGGC's funds to speed product growth. It also intends to expand its European presence by increasing its team of about 20 regional staffers. While Selligent is almost exclusively positioned in Europe, StrongView CEO Bill Wagner sees no conflict.
"It's very complementary," he said. "They operate in the mid-market, we operate at the enterprise level. They're more campaign management, whereas we're more email and cross-channel."
As with other tech companies in HGGC's portfolio, Wagner will look for areas to cross-pollinate.
"HGGC has a really interesting portfolio of companies that can help us on a number of different fronts," he said. "Some as simple as providing account access to the types of customers its other portfolio companies have, like MyWebGrocer."
From a product standpoint, Wagner said the company hopes to help marketers "focus less on a campaign-based approach and react more to circumstances that consumers find themselves in."
For instance, when someone opens an email message, StrongView hopes to allow marketers to dynamically change the email content based on the reader's circumstances.
These aspirations, coupled with StrongView's current product offering, made it one of Forrester Research's category leaders in a report last year.
And HGGC's investment should help StrongView address Forrester's caveat: that its "comparatively small size will preclude it from global or franchise deals. It has a limited international footprint and no distributed user module."
Certainly next to the other email marketing leaders Forrester pinpointed – Salesforce, Oracle's Responsys and Epsilon – StrongView looks like a scrappy up-and-comer.
But it really isn't, originating as email infratructure company StrongMail way back in 2002. At the time, there were numerous pure-play email marketing companies but as consumers embraced digital, many rebranded as cross- or multichannel marketing solutions providers and got acquired.
In 2012, Teradata bought German email marketing company eCircle. One year later, Salesforce bought ExactTarget, Adobe bought French marketing automation company Neolane and Oracle bought Responsys. And, last year, IBM bought Silverpop.
Notably, StrongView isn't going to another vendor where, presumably, it would be integrated into a marketing cloud. At least not yet.
"We see those [acquired vendors] being digested into larger companies, and we're seeing some of their clients being dissatisfied with where they're taking their products and the level of service they're getting," Wagner said.
While StrongView will continuously upgrade its product offering, Wagner isn't going to expand at the same rate as the big marketing cloud providers.
"We'll draw a boundary around things that are very useful to marketers, and are natural extensions to what we're doing," he said. "For the bigger cloud providers, it's about maximizing the things they can put on the table that brands can buy."
These days, private equity buyouts seem to be a popular option for tech companies that want cash without having to tumble through the volatile public markets. In other recent PE deals, Rockbridge Growth Equity bought Triad Retail Media, Vista Equity Partners nabbed Mediaocean, Cathay Capital picked up Smart AdServer for $42.1 million and Vector Capital bought Triton Digital.
Private equity firms that invest in vendors who've been around for a while get access to the growing marketing tech space – at a reasonable price.
StrongView, which Wagner said is profitable, had raised a total of $38.1 million from investors like Sequoia and Globespan. Its last Series D round, way back in 2009, came in at $7.6 million, according to CrunchBase. Those investors will no longer be involved with StrongView, and will be selling their stakes to HGGC.
At Long Last, Google's CMP And IAB Europe Agree To Share Consent Systems
In-App Bidding Gathers Steam, But Adoption Looks Nothing Like Header Bidding On The Web
Will Apple's Deadline Extension Change How Developers Get Ready For IDFA Changes In IOS 14?
Group Nine Offers Its First-Party Data To Power DR Ads On Instagram, Facebook


It was only a matter of time before cloud giant x86 network appliance made a splash in the IoT market, but Thursday's announcement seemed more like a tidal wave.
At the re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels unveiled a beta version of the company's new AWS IoT platform, a managed cloud offering that combines Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) DynamoDB, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Machine Learning, Amazon S3, and other AWS services into a single solution for managing, storing, and analyzing IoT device data. AWS IoT connects systems to Amazon's backend services through an AWS Device Gateway that supports the MQTT and HTTP communications protocols, enabling IoT designers to take advantage of an infrastructure that can support billions of devices and trillions of messages, according to the company. In addition, the AWS IoT platform introduces a technology called "shadowing" in which virtual versions of each connected device are created and stored so that systems with intermittent connectivity can be updated after periods when a network connection is unavailable or turned off to conserve resources. Other features include an embeddable x86 UTM AWS IoT Device SDK; mutual authentication, encryption, and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) security provisions; as well as a rules engine that allows developers to define device data routing, filtering, and x86 network appliance processing using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS IoT APIs, or AWS Management Console.
Amazon Web Services offers access to AWS IoT through a developer plan starting at $49 per month, but free accounts are also available that allow basic investigation of the AWS IoT, including an interactive tutorial that demonstrates how to connect "Things" to a message broker, use the rules engine to process and act on data, and read and set device states with "Thing Shadows." You can access x86 UTM this tutorial at aws.amazon.com/iot, or learn more about the capabilities of Amazon Web Services in the on-demand E-cast "Build versus buy: Benefits of leveraging an existing cloud platform in IoT" at ecast.opensystemsmedia.com/571.


text:
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OOIDA appealing court ruling on sleep apnea suit
by Truck News
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
GRAIN VALLEY, MO – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is appealing the United States Court of Appeals dismissal of their lawsuit alleging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) bypassed the rulemaking process when regulating sleep apnea.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit dismissed the OOIDA's appeal in January, saying the appeal "lacked standing."
"We don't agree with the ruling, and we also think it runs counter to decisions made in other appellate courts," said OOIDA Acting President Todd Spencer.
Spencer says the addition of regulations and guidelines for screening for the sleep disorder hold drivers hostage when it comes time to get a physical.
The OOIDA's lawsuit filed last April alleges the FMCSA changed regulations regarding sleep apnea without notice of the new rules by requiring certified medical examiners to use a new form when conducting drivers' physical exams.
In 2015 the FMCSA added obstructive sleep apnea to Appendix A of the medical forms examiners use, the appendix is a list of medical criteria examiners must review during a physical exam when deciding whether they can certify a driver.
The OOIDA argued the action wasn't subject to public comment or a cost-benefit analysis.
The organization says it is concerned about reports from members who say sleep studies to screen for obstructive apnea have been costly.
Sufferers of obstructed sleep apnea often stop breathing for a few seconds up to several minutes while sleeping, sometimes up to several hundred times a night, causing wakefulness and preventing deep and restful sleep.
In July the U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew its previously announced notice of rulemaking, which would have allowed the issue to be reviewed with input from the industry and additional regulations to be created surrounding the issue.
"While most people in trucking have the perspective that the withdrawal fixed the problem, it didn't," Spencer said. "Withdrawing the rulemaking allows what had been going on previously to be followed and kept in practice. Without the rulemaking, the only way the problem can be resolved is through the courts in the manner we're following."
The OOIDA hasn't given a timeline for filing the appeal.
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These Transformer-core inductors are impregnated in Polyurethane resin as a protection against corrosion as well as to attenuate vibration of the coil-windings. They offer high power handling, very low dc resistance as well as the most favourable saturation characteristics.
- Inductance tolerance: +/- 3%.
- Core type: High quality E type grain oriented silicon iron laminations.


text:
Mega Navigation
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Nathan Dyer praises Swansea City preparations
Nathan Dyer has paid tribute to the work of Steve Cooper and his staff in ensuring that everyone in Swansea City's squad is ready to perform when called upon.
Dyer, Wayne Routledge and Ben Wilmot have been among the players to be handed starting roles in recent weeks after having to show patience.
But head coach Cooper has always made clear he believes in the depth of his squad, and in making sure all players are prepared and ready to feature.
And Dyer – a goalscorer in the victory over Wigan – says that approach can be clearly seen in how Swansea have continued to pick up points when changes have been made to the line-up.
"The gaffer and the staff have always made sure the players that aren't involved still feel like they are, so when they come in, they do a job," said Dyer.
"Everyone's together here; there are no egos or outsiders, we're a collective.
"Sometimes, it can be hard when you haven't played for a little while, but you've just got to go out there and give 110 per cent.
"On that front, the staff deserve great credit for the work that we do day in and day out. "Sometimes, when we do draw or fall behind, it's not a reflection of what we're capable of.
"They have us prepared and in the best possible shape to perform. That's all you can ask for as players."
Swansea head to face Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday looking for a third win in a row after beating Cardiff and Wigan.
They are the only side in the EFL who are still unbeaten away from home and, with a key period approaching in the form of the busy festive schedule, Dyer knows how important it will be to maintain that sense of forward momentum.
"Hopefully, we've got a foundation to build on going into a very tough period of matches leading up to Christmas," he added.
"Games are going to be coming thick and fast, so we want to pick up as many points as we can. As long as we're solid as a team and stay together, we'll be fine.
"We want to continue our good form on the road."
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Luigi Macera and the "battling midgets" stole the show before a capacity wrestling crowd at the fairgrounds Cow Palace Saturday night.
Referee Elton Owen disqualified Mike Dibiase in the first fall of the headliner with Macera. Macera had "Iron Mike" in a bad way in the second fall with punches and drop kicks and Wild Bill Savage avenged an out-side-the-ring trick by Savage last week and head-butted Dibiase. Macera pinned Savage with ease.
Little Beaver, with his partner Red Taylor, beat Sky Lo-Lo with drop kicks and a flip to win the howling special event. Tom Thumb was Lo-Lo's partner.
The team tilt ended in a draw when Savage downed Kenny Ackles in the first fall. Lorenzo Parente, Ackles' partner, whip-wristlocked Savage so hard into the ropes that the top strand snapped and Savage plunged to his face and Parente scored an easy press. Tito Kopa was Savage's partner.
Kurt Von Poppenheim beat Pancho Valdez in the one-fall opener.
This entry was posted in 1961 and tagged Kenny Ackles, Kurt Von Poppenheim, Little Beaver, Lorenzo Parente, Luigi Macera, Mike DiBiase, Pancho Valdez, Red Taylor, Sky Lo-Lo, Tito Kopa, Tom Thumb, Wild Bill Savage. Bookmark the permalink.


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Climate Change and the Democrats
by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.
Original Publication can be found here: https://townhall.com/columnists/emmetttyrrell/2019/09/12/climate-change-and-the-democrats-n2552952
WASHINGTON -- Climate change is one of those issues that the bien-pensants around the world all agree upon. We must act! If we do not act, people will lose their beach houses. Plants will wither and die. Birds will fall from the sky. Just last week, whole communities in the Caribbean were swept away.
There are, however, problems with eliminating or ameliorating climate change. For one thing, modern technology cannot seem to keep up with people's ability to dream. Daydreams outpace technology every time. Dream up a problem such as climate change and I guarantee you it will be years before climate change is solved by technology. Though when I ponder some of the solutions now being offered for climate change, it might be worth the wait.
Consider Congressgirl Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She has dreamed up a vast scheme. She calls it the Green New Deal. It envisages all our homes and office buildings, and even factories being revised and rebuilt according to her green code. Others are more moderate. They would only wipe out the commercial airline industry, though the automobile industry could be next. Already there is an ambitious plan afoot in our country to end the life of the plastic straw.
Oh, yes, there is another problem with climate change. It is not a winning issue with the electorate. Any government that attempts this sort of Green Adventure almost immediately falls. I cannot think of a country on Earth whose majority supports climate change legislation. Possibly there is one in the Vatican. We know the pope favors it. Yet I would say that the Vatican is not a conventional democracy.
CARTOONS | AF BRANCO
Australia is a conventional democracy, and climate change legislation has not done very well in Australia. Seven prime ministers have come to power in Australia in recent years, and all came a cropper in one way or another because of climate change. The most famous example of a climate changer being defeated by a climate change denier in Australia was in 2013. In that election, then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who ran on a platform of carbon taxes, was demolished by Tony Abbott, who once referred to climate change activism as crap. He sounds downright Trumpian to me.
Last Wednesday, we saw the Democrats' lonely crowd of candidates traipse across a stage for a ghostly pageant hosted by CNN. The network finished dead last in the ratings that night, with the other two cable news channels elbowing it aside. The network's average audience during the seven-hour event (yes, seven-hour!) was a measly 1.1 million viewers, according to The Hill. The topic of the spectacular was climate change. Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, apparently thought it was the major issue with the Democratic hopefuls, and obviously, they agreed.
Gaffable Joe Biden, Pocahontas, Comrade Bernie Sanders and all the rest arrived on stage Wednesday night to talk about climate change all night long if need be. They compared it to World War II. They compared it to cancer. They blamed it for wars already in progress and wars in the future. One ludicrous comparison was between climate change and overpopulation. The wretched of Africa could be saved by Planned Parenthood's arrival to the Dark Continent, all wearing pith helmets and garb from L.L. Bean.
Boy, Have the Democrats Ever Overplayed Their Hand!
David Limbaugh
Frankly, the Democrats' obsession with climate change is more than odd. It is delusional. As The American Spectator's Hunt Lawrence and Daniel J. Flynn wrote in commenting on the Wednesday night revels, health care "matters to voters in a real, tangible way, and not in an abstract sense like climate change." Health care consumes 18 percent of the American budget, trending upward toward 20 percent by mid-decade. Americans now spend $3.5 trillion or so on health care, with the federal, state and local government footing 45% of the bill. How will we pay for it in 2025? The subject was not even discussed last Wednesday by the leading Democratic contenders.
Lawrence and Flynn are putting their money on health care, not climate change, as an issue in 2020.
About Emmett Tyrrell
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism , published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; ...
More from Emmett Tyrrell
'The 1619 Project' and the Red Meat Project
American Authoritarianism
The Social Media Conundrum
How Joe Biden Can Revive Liberalism
Donald Trump's Unusual Political Libido
Time Wasted
Thatcher and Reagan: Why Do They Hate Them So?
Attorney General William Barr, 'Adult of the Year'


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A Recent History of Presidential Impeachments in Latin America
The recent impeachment scandal occurring in Brazil stemming from President Dilma's alleged involvement in the Lava-Jato scandal has resurrected stories from past impeachment scandals around Latin America.
Read more about A Recent History of Presidential Impeachments in Latin America
New Law in Colombia Addresses Rise in Acid Attacks
A crime normally associated with countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, acid attacks have been on the rise in Colombia. In 2014, more than 100 cases were reported, with nearly 1,000 reported in the past decade. According to executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), a nonprofit group in London, per capita Colombia has one of the highest rates of acid attacks in the world.
Read more about New Law in Colombia Addresses Rise in Acid Attacks
Colombia Unearths 28,000 Bodies through the Search for Unidentified People Program
It is no secret that the armed conflict in Colombia with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians during its more-than-50 year lifespan. The numbers are staggering, as more than 220,000 people have been killed, 80 percent of whom were civilians, 150,000 people have been displaced each year since 1985, and more than 63,000 people have been officially reported as missing.
Read more about Colombia Unearths 28,000 Bodies through the Search for Unidentified People Program
Regulatory Agencies and Courts in the Global South
By Julian Daniel Lopez-Murcia
In 2013, I authored what turned out to be the most read paper in the Journal of Politics in Latin America. It was a case study of the overlaps between the Water Regulatory Commission (CRA) and the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Regulatory issues are not the sexiest of topics in Latin American politics.
Read more about Regulatory Agencies and Courts in the Global South
Colombian Expatriates' Electoral Participation and Political Preferences
By Cristina Escobar, James McCann, and Renelinda Arana
In the last few decades, many countries have enfranchised their emigrant populations. Voting from abroad is not new, but was historically reserved for diplomats or military personnel. However, starting in the 1990s, parallel to a growth in international migration, an increasing number of countries enacted laws allowing expatriates to participate in some fashion in the electoral process. Twelve Latin American nations have enacted these rights. Colombia (1962) was the first country in Latin America, and the second in the world, after Indonesia (1953), to extend suffrage to emigrants.
Read more about Colombian Expatriates' Electoral Participation and Political Preferences


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U-M pays $165K to settle suit with dismissed student
The school struck a deal with Jennifer Dibbern before a June trial and after a judge dismissed many claims.
U-M pays $165K to settle suit with dismissed student The school struck a deal with Jennifer Dibbern before a June trial and after a judge dismissed many claims. Check out this story on Freep.com: http://on.freep.com/2amw2Ur
Detroit Free Press Published 11:19 a.m. ET July 27, 2016 | Updated 4:37 p.m. ET July 27, 2016
Scales of justice, gavel and books.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The University of Michigan has agreed to pay $165,000 to settle what was left of a lawsuit over a graduate student's dismissal from an engineering program in 2011.
The school struck a deal with Jennifer Dibbern shortly before a June trial and after a federal judge dismissed most claims. She had accused the university of retaliating against her for union activity and efforts to change the campus anti-harassment policy.
The university denied any wrongdoing and said Dibbern wasn't making enough progress toward a doctorate degree after four years, among other issues.
Related: Mark Bernstein: We didn't offer gift to have our name on U-M building
Related: U-M hikes tuition for undergrads nearly 4%
Dibbern's lawyers will get $83,000, half the settlement, for their fees and expenses, according to a document released to the Associated Press under a public records request.
The university denied liability and said it settled after 3½ years to bring an end to the costly litigation. The agreement bars both sides from talking about the deal.
"We resolved the case to everybody's satisfaction," said Dibbern's attorney, David Blanchard.
He said Dibbern is pursuing an advanced degree in linguistics elsewhere.
Dibbern went public in 2012, telling reporters that she was kicked out of the College of Engineering because she supported efforts to unionize research assistants.
The litigation revealed that Dibbern had reported sexual harassment by male students. Depositions and other evidence also showed that she had been repeatedly warned that she wasn't spending enough time in the lab while pursuing interests in law and labor.
By fall 2011, professor Rachel Goldman said Dibbern's research grant would end "unless some extraordinary changes occur."
Before the settlement, U.S. District Judge Sean Cox said Dibbern had shown evidence of a "casual connection" between her dismissal and negative reactions to her union-organizing activities.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2amw2Ur
Here's how much snow has fallen across metro Detroit, Michigan
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Whitmer has a new approach to Michigan's crumbling roads
Live: Metro Detroit, Michigan weather radar and traffic updates
Police: Motorist kills pedestrian while fleeing


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Traditional Catholics Emerge
~ Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
Spy Wednesday And The Betrayal Of The Homosexual Acceptance Movement Within The Novus Ordo Priesthood
Posted by telmab7 in General-Traditional Catholics, Homesexuality and Transgenderism, News-Catholic Church, Vatican and Clergy
Catholic Homosexual Clergy, Catholic Teaching On Homosexuality, Father James Martin, Homosexuality, LA Archdiocese Conference, LA- Rec, The Saints And Nobility, Traditional Catholicism
Spy Wednesday And Priests In Judas Like Betrayal Mode | The Vortex
https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-spy-wednesday
What Does The UN , Abortion, Lesbianism, Sodomy, Bisexuali, Transvestites, Eugenics , and Euthanasia Have In Common ? Everything
Abortion, LGBT groups join forces to quash Trump's pro-life UN agenda | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abortion-lgbt-groups-join-forces-to-quash-trumps-pro-life-un-agenda
The Remnant Newspaper – "We Are the Champions": How the Lavender Mafia Got
Over the Wall and into the Sanctuary
https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/3806-we-are-the-cha
mpions-how-the-lavender-mafia-got-over-the-wall-and-into-the-sanctuary
Cdl. Dolan Opposed to Extending Statute of Limitations for Sex Crimes Wants Old Cases Exonerated – On CMTV
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/cdl.-dolan-opposed-to-extending-statute-of-limitations
Church Militant Finds Bishops Don't Care if Priests Are Sexually Active – On The Eponymous Flower
http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2018/03/church-militant-finds-bishops-dont-care.html
Wrongly Accused Priest
Priest Sues Church Over Gay Conspiracy – On CMTV
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/priest-sues-church-over-gay-conspiracy
***Homosexual Movement Of Acceptance Within The Priesthood Stories ***
Pro-homosexual Fr. Marti n at Church-sanctioned LA conference: 'I stand withJesus' | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-homosexual-fr.-martin-at-church-sancti
oned-la-conference-i-stand-w
Catholics Pray Outside Cathedral Where Controversial Jesuit Speaks –TFP http://www.tfp.org/catholics-pray-outside-cathedral-where-controversial-jesuit-speaks/ Chicago Catholics Set to Protest Fr. James Martin – On CMTV
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/father-james-martin-in-chicagos-cathedral
Pro-homosexual Fr. James Martin: Traditionalists can't 'listen' like Jesus to gay activists | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pro-homosexual-fr.-james-martin-traditionalists-cant-listen-like-jesus-to-g
Pro-gay Fr. James Martin will headline LGBT symposium at public university | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fr.-james-martin-to-feature-in-homosexual-dissident-symposium-at-u-of-cinci
Mountain lions are popping up all over the Bay Area
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/12/mountain-lions-are-popping-up-all-over-the-bay-area/
Confronting the Gay Priest Problem – The Catholic Thing
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/01/07/confronting-the-gay-priest-problem/
Report: Gay People Show Little Interest in Marriage After All | Breitbart
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/11/29/report-gay-people-show-little-interest-marriage/
Pope Francis' Scandalous Support for Homosexual Unions by Margaret Galitzin- On TIA
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/N021_Grassi.htm
Ivanka Trump – Backed by Pence – Promotes Gay, Transgender Rights by Cliff Kincaid- On TIA
http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/N033_Ivanka.htm
Vatican II, Homosexuality and Pedophilia by Atila Sinke Guimaraes- On TIA
https://www.traditioninaction.org/tiabkHomo.htm
St. Peter Damian on homosexuality: 'This Vices Causes Death of Bodies and Destruction of Souls' – On TIA
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/n132_Sodomy_8.htm
Scriptures Against Homosexuality – On John Salza's Site
https://www.scripturecatholic.com/homosexuality/
The Real Face Of The Left Coming To A City Near You – On You Tube
Pro-life Chilean congressman Jose Antonio Kast suffered a violent mob assault earlier this week as he was attempting to enter an auditorium as a guest speaker at the University Arturo Prat in the Chilean city of Iquique.
The ordeal lasted for close to 30 minutes before the local police arrived wearing riot gear to disperse the mob. Much of the assault was captured on video and can be seen below.
Jose Antonio Kast, a conservative politician who placed fourth in the last presidential elections in Chile was the most visible political opponent to the legalization of abortion and redefinition of marriage in Chile. A Catholic and a father of nine, he can be seen in the video being called a Nazi, threatened to death, hit with rocks and bottles, kicked, and spat upon.
After being repulsed from the auditorium a small group of advisors attempted to shield him as they sought refuge from the attack, finally finding it inside a nearby gas station.
The violent mob remained outside laying siege to the gas station until the police arrived, at which point they ran away. Mr. Kast was taken to a local hospital where injuries to one of his legs required him to wear a cast. He also suffered torn ligaments in one of his hands.
Media interviews captured on camera at the scene of the crime revealed the motivation behind the attacks on Mr. Kast. An unnamed LGBT university leader admits in one of these interviews that "the rejection of Kast is due to the fact that he has ridiculed the social demands of the LGBT groups, which have had to organize this protest as a way to make visible the institutional violence that LGBT groups have suffered at the university."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=NdmlVzPkKo0
March 28 – Noble deeds make noble men – On Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites
http://www.nobility.org/2015/03/26/josef-speckbacher/
March 28 – He refused life and liberty at the price of conformity- Ven. Christopher Wharton – On Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites
http://www.nobility.org/2018/03/26/march-28-refused-life-liberty-price-conformity/
Josef Speckbacher and his son Andreas, Engraving after F. Defregger
From the letter to the Hebrews 12:14-29 You have come to the mountain of the living God
Strive for peace with all men, and for that holiness without which no one can see the Lord. See to it that no man falls away from the grace of God; that no bitter root springs up through which many may become defiled; that there be among you no fornicator or godless person like Esau, who sold his birthright for a meal. You know that afterward he wanted to inherit his father's blessing, but he was rejected because he had no opportunity to alter his choice, even though he sought the blessing with tears.
You have not drawn near to an untouchable mountain and a blazing fire, nor gloomy darkness and storm and trumpet blast, nor a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that they be not addressed to them, for they could not bear to hear the command: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death." Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
No, you have drawn near to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
Do not refuse to hear him who speaks. For if the Israelites did not escape punishment when they refused to listen as God spoke to them on earth, how much greater punishment will be ours if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven! His voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, "I will once more shake not only earth but heaven!" And that "once more" shows that shaken, created things will pass away, so that only what is unshaken may remain.
Wherefore, we who are receiving the unshakable kingdom should hold fast to God's grace, through which we may offer worship acceptable to him in reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.
From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop The perfection of love
Dear brethren, the Lord has marked out for us the fullness of love that we ought to have for each other. He tells us: No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends. In these words, the Lord tells us what the perfect love we should have for one another involves. John, the evangelist who recorded them, draws the conclusion in one of his letters: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us.
This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler's table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one's hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.
This is what is meant by providing "the same kind of meal." This is what the blessed martyrs did with such burning love. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, to our approaching the Lord's table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide "the same kind of meal."
At this table of the Lord we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who rest in peace. We do not pray for the martyrs as we pray for those others, rather, they pray for us, that we may follow in his footsteps. They practiced the perfect love of which the Lord said there could be none greater. They provided "the same kind of meal" as they had themselves received at the Lord's table. This must not be understood as saying that we can be the Lord's equals by bearing witness to him to the extent of shedding our blood. He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.
Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers, as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us, not an example to imitate but a reason for rejoicing. Inasmuch, then, as they shed their blood for their brothers, the martyrs provided "the same kind of meal" as they had received at the Lord's table. Let us then love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us.
Spy Wednesday – Maundy Thursday – Lauds – Tenabrae
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/01715a_efafe7c0b07845609f547f3a4f0a2515.pdf
2020 Presidential Election – Inside News
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