Smarty Card. Learn to get stuff
Smarty Card was launched on Tuesday and it is both persuasive and worrying. The well-crafted site is aimed mainly at third to sixth graders, selling fun and colourful learning activities. It adds an element of incentive by rewarding success with points the kids can use to purchase virtual or real merchandise. This incentive is what makes this new service unsettling.
The service offers educational activities that kids complete on the basis of receiving tangible goods, such as DVDs, Nintendo Wii games or Star Wars toys.
Where is the sense of pride in learning? Surely, it is wrong to teach our children that success translates into acquiring more stuff!!