If I were a teenager today and my teacher asked me if I wanted to play video games in school, I would say yes in a heartbeat. Even if they were boring video games. As a teenager, I just wanted something to be entertaining and hold my interests. And I have a bad habit getting involved with games that do not really take me in the right direction. As an adult, and future teacher, I don’t see the logical value to including video games in the school environment. I remember the feelings I got from playing video games and it was never about learning or developing my problem solving skills. The problem solving skills developed in the video game environments were only for continued entertainment and fiscal purposes. I wanted to make my money last longer and prolong my excitement. Video games may minimally compliment instruction, but they fall too close to entertainment, in my opinion, to be instruction replacement.
James Paul Gee in his paper, Good Video Games and Good Learning, talks about 16 different learning principles of video games. That is quite a few. And though they all might be valuable learning principles, their practical application to learning in such a way as to pass standards tests or other forms of assessment won’t work.
The most resonating things Mr. Gee mentions are the examples of video games, over and over again. I don’t disagree that each example backs up that learning principle mentioned, but what practical application does that have in our standards based education. Yes, we can’t teach to standards, but the principles of learning Mr. Gee mention can all be encompassed by passionate, caring, engaged teachers and parents. The sole entertainment value of each one of those video games may take away from the functional ideas encouraged during school.
If I were to incorporate any ideas of learning from video games advanced by Mr. Gee, it would be of customization. I would like my students to be more self directed in their learning. Breaking the norm in helping students understand algebra or trigonometry might make their classroom time that much more enjoyable. There is always a point of understanding I feel I need to get my math students to, but making it fit their modalities of learning will engage them much longer than any video game will.
It is interesting to read you and your classmates postings. I am always torn between allowing the games or not. You have some great ideas here as to why they shouldn't be used.
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