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Earlier this week at the MIT Enterprise Forum, Digitaria’s SVP of Global Business Development Jim McArthur shared the stage with David Allison, CTO and co-founder of Nulu, and Ronald Uhlig, Dean of National University's School of Business and Management. The forum was moderated by Duane Trombly of PointeBreak Solutions. The topic: Gamification.

Panelists discussed gamification's various uses, from marketing tool to educational game changer. Uhlig made the point that only recently have we adopted educational systems that allow for failure. The model in years past was apprenticeship, a long-term teaching path that almost always produced a fully trained practitioner. Games share this quality, Uhlig noted.

McArthur expressed optimism about what he termed the "Gamification Singularity." Enabled by the confluence of head-up display (such as Google's Project Glass), always-on connectivity, big data, and analytics, he declared a tipping point -- the day game experiences will be integrated into our daily lives: Everything from chopping vegetables to dating may eventually be wrapped in a gaming skin, increasing engagement and providing new ways for users to learn skills.

Allison’s own Nulu, Inc. is using Gamification techniques to build a language learning platform. He stressed the importance of enjoyable, short experiences that are intrinsically motivating. That is, they take advantage of elements the user already finds interesting to wrap learning experiences in fun.

The panelists were agreed that Gamification represents a new, important mode for business and education to engage and incentivize their audiences.