Sunday, September 16, 2007
Consider Game-Informed Learning Rather than Game-Based Learning
This annotated bibliography on video games in education is quite informative. Because of our class discussion last week, the second item on the list especially caught my attention. The authors of the article referenced there distinguish between game-informed learning and game-based learning. I really think that Gee is advocating the former rather than the latter. I'd be interested in knowing what others think, though.
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While I agree that Gee seems to be leaning towards the idea that the learning tactics he's experienced through playing video games have some value in the education system, sometimes in class our discussions seem to get focused on how game-based learning can be implemented in schools. The real issue is how to take his principles and incorporate them using whatever technology is available to each instructor. Any method of teaching that is effective should be considered, but the costs associated with game-based lesson plans may be a deterrent for less funded schools. The question then is if and how Gee’s principles can be applied outside of an actual video game?
Now, the Gee text makes sense. I was struggling with the ideas of game based and game informed, based solely on my own ignorance, but I finally found my way, and can see the application of Gee's learning principles. Too much of the text, for me, was devoted to descriptions of the games and I wondered why he would spend so much time on that aspect. When I began digging through the "volumes" of description of the multiple games he played, I began to find his actual presentation. I wasn't assuming that he was projecting the idea that we should teach videogames in the classroom, or use them as teaching devices, but rather, he was explaining the principles of good learning within videogames that were directly related to learning in a domain outside of the virtual domains he describes. Now, I wonder, with his ideas expressed, whether or not I would be able to incorporate the use of game based activities in my classroom. Skeptical I am, but the idea supports multi-modal learning, and, in turn, visual text as a tool for this upcoming, and the current, generation.
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