Old Tricks Are the Best Tricks: Repurposing Programmed Instruction in the Mobile,Digital Age

This article describes an interesting mash‐up between programmed instruction and cloud‐based, mobile technology currently being used for learning retention and habit formation, both in enterprise settings and in the public. The technology is called Ringorang (ring‐o‐rang), and it delivers practical, incentive‐based education and behavioral impacts. It is an app for mobile and PC devices that produces tangible performance results by interweaving multiple components of behaviorism (and its derivatives) in a deceptively simple user experience: the app asks you a question and incentivizes you to answer. In some regards, it is a modern take on the teaching machine, with a few new tricks thrown in.