Blog Archives
EdGamer Celebrates Three Years of PodCasting about Games and Learning!
Congratulations Zach and Gerry, keep up the good work!
From the EdGamer show notes;
EdGamer 129: Our 3 Year Manniversary
This week on EdGamer 129 we celebrate our 3 year manniversasy! Relive all the good times from our past as we go through our favorite shows and guests. We have 128 shows and we have learned so much from our work, our guests, and our FOE’s (friends of EdGamer). Tune-in and level-up!
Olympic Snowboarding Cross
our favorite episodes…
An Open Letter to STEAM: If You Build It, ED Will Come
Minecraft Episodes – Joel Levin
EdGamer 86: Jeremiah McCall and the Learning Games Network
EdGamer 81: John Hunter Brings Us World Peace
EdGamer 74: Magicians – A Language Learning RPG
Show Host: Zack Gilbert
Show Contributor/Producer: Gerry James
To browse the EdGamer archives click here;
http://edreach.us/channel/edgamer/#
James Gee Interviewed on Game-Based Learning
Lee Banville of Games and Learning interviewed James Gee on game-based learning.
Banville writes that; “For more than a decade, James Paul Gee has been writing about the potential power of games and game mechanics to change the way we learn, to create new “deep” learners.
But in this newsmaker interview Gee says most of the possibilities of games remain unfulfilled as the American education system continues to focus on tests and fact retention.
He worries that even as learning games become more prevalent, they are in danger of being changed by the schools they seek to sell to rather than changing the school itself.
“The textbook was the worst educational invention ever made because it was a one size fits all type thing and we don’t want to do the same things with games. We don’t want to bring games to school,” he said. “We want to bring a networked system of tools and deep learning and practices that have been tested and are focused on problem solving and not just fact retention — that’s what we want to bring to school. Games can be a very important part of that mix.”
To read more click here; http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2014/02/10/newsmaker-james-gee-on-why-the-power-of-games-to-teach-remains-unrealized/
To Listen to the full interview click here;
Good Games Are Hard: in a Fun Way
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In her article “Teachers, Students, Digital Games: What’s the Right Mix?” Holly Korbey interviewed a few educators who had some bad ideas about computer games;
“And learning is hard work. The tools children use to manipulate and
change the world and their own neural pathways should reflect the
profundity of that phenomenon; we should have some blisters, form
calluses, break a sweat. Computer games don’t demand that from
children.”
No.
The better games are demanding. That is why they are the best games. There are educational games that are very challenging but they are challenging in the way that good play is challenging. It is counter productive to remind children that they learning not playing. The best learning happens when we are playing.
Practicing a skill leads to success, but if the practice is boring then students will be less motivated to engage in the requisite practice (James Gee, 2007). The best digital games provide practice that is very compelling, engaging, and challenging, but never boring. Gamers play not because games are easy but because they are hard. But, they are hard in the right way, to the right degree, and most importantly – they are hard in a fun way. The best games provide the balance of challenge and support. To describe learning as “hard work and not play” is one of the worst possible ways to describe it.
Gee, J.P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (Rev. ed.). New York: Palgrave McMillian.To read the full article by Holly Korbey click here;
Gaming and Education 