When I was a kid, my teachers used to make us play games in the classroom to learn just about everything that required memorization. Sure, rewards were a great incentive, and I was definitely being tricked into learning, but their process was effective because it was fun. We weren’t staring at a chalkboard. We were engaging in a gamified learning process with a set motivational goal.

The basic principles of gamification, and more, in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Ground For Gaming

I knew gaming came in handy in "real life": http://t.co/Y274Chum via @copyblogger

— Bree Brouwer (@BreeBrouwer) February 19, 2013

When it comes to spicing things up, gamification almost always delivers in terms of engagement. As we’ve written before, gamification has been called a fad. But as Danny Iny, a marketer at Firepole Marketing, points out in Copyblogger, the experience can be fulfilling in more ways than one when games are well planned. According to Iny, the principles of gamification include motivation, discovery, feedback, and rewards. Without these in your recipe, it’s hard to measure the value of the game. Have you tried to add some play into your events? (ht @BreeBrouwer)

Beautifully Planned Design

12 #Conference and #Event Websites for #Design Inspiration http://t.co/pcpVt1pE #eventprofs #assnchat

— Klover Events (@KloverEvents) February 19, 2013

A beautiful site should have a purpose. The trick lies in setting a goal and forging a path toward it. As Keith Johnston of the PlannerWire blog says, you need to know what the result should be as soon as you set out on a web project. “You need to get a good idea of what styles you like and what you don’t. You need to know what functionality is important and which is worthless. You need to imagine what you want the finished product to be in order to start,” he writes. Check out 12 inspirational web designs in his blog post.  (ht @KloverEvents)

What have you been sharing today? Let us know in the comments.