We attended a presentation by Dr. Kahne about how video games can be incorporated in video games.
Key points that got me thinking were:
1. Can games could become part of the school curriculum if they can be used for a significant educational value?
If yes, then how? There was a little discussion about how educator and game developers can't get along. It seems that game developers, as well as marketing managers, don't really know the right approach to developing educational games. There is a big wall between them. Educators on the other hand, feel like education should not be a "game" or hat students should not have fun doing homework. There was a point brought to our attention that teacher rely on a grade system to evaluate a students' development whereas game developers rely on achievements; as long they reach the next level they should keep going!"
My take? I think as of now, games are still games, there are some that are more educational than others but at the end, they are still games, or have the same game story line, there is end.
The whole game industry relies on selling, meaning that as soon as the new game version comes out, developers are producing the sequel, this has its marketing purpose--to make money. Education on the other hand is a more linear approach rather that the scalable standard game design approach. In conclusion, we should stay away from using the word "game:. Game developers need to take a look at the educational industry and they will, hopefully, find a way to create more education training capsules while at the same time make money.
2. Civic duties?
Dr. Kahn showed us a clip from the video game Halo, and elaborated on the the reason the pitch on the clip was to give the gamer sense of civic duty, help something, the world. My perception is that we can learn every theory, every philosophy, every idea out there, but there is nothing that can replace HUMAN TOUCH, human interaction, the human factor. Someeducational modules/capsules may have great success , but it should not replace LIVE life experience or actually, physically walking on other's people shoes. In other words, I don't entirely agree with the connection of civic duty to be the reason why people would want to learn in a game environment. Or maybe I got Dr.Kahn note entirely wrong.
LM and CMS:
I am a newbie, and the presentation today was very informative. We learn about moddle, drupal and other content management and learning management tools that are open source and available to the public as well as Open Source's terms and conditions. I am looking forward to getting some hand-on experience on developing class curriculum and start creating lesson plans and maybe base my final project on this.
4 comments:
I should say I see eye to eye with your reflection on the Video Game presentation. I am a total non-video-game person. I only have 2 times of gaming experiences (once playing "Super Mary" and once "Counter-Strike"). I prefer real world social networking and activities. They're irreplaceable!
Hi Tracy!
I agree with you, I have a-short-retention game insterest. I used to play Super Mario but got bored after two, three stages. Take care.
I think the thing about learning with games is that the learning objectives are not right there in front of the gamer. What the gamer learns is incidental to the game -- learning is sneaked into the experience. I actually think that a lot of things we learn are incidental to whatever our objective is (and also some bad habits, too!).
So, it seems to me that games can augment, rather than replace, the educational experience.
Hello!
In spite of my being on vacation, I really enjoyed everyone's posts regarding gaming and education. What better way for people to learn something than by having fun at the same time. If all things could be like this, life would be a heckuva lot more interesting. However, I agree that some people's attention spans might prevent full learning as one may lose interest.
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