Articles Posted in Games for Learning

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Brass-At-Sign.jpgVirtual Worlds and Video Games for Education are getting a lot of press these days. With all the hoopla it helps to bring a little perspective to where we are in the development of this new market. It is feeling a lot like the web in 1997 and perhaps we can take some lessons from that era to help us make sense of today’s emerging opportunities.

Nick Wilson over at Metaversed did an excellent piece titled 7 Reasons Why Virtual Worlds are Like the Web Circa 1997. In this post is I delve a little deeper into his list as it relates specifically to education and the companies that serve this market.

Here is Silver’s premise:

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Collective writing is a critical 21st Century Skill. Wikis are the primary tool for teaching this skill today. What resources exist to help teachers use wikis in the classroom? Recently this issue has been bubbling up on several places.

The Wall Street Journal had an article on the discussions behind the Wikis. For educational purposes there is more meat in the discussion threads for classroom conversation and interesting opportunities for students to engage actively with content than there often is in the articles themselves. Money quote:

“But discussion pages are also where Wikipedians discuss and debate what an article should or shouldn’t say.

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Unpacking the Zeitgeist is an amusing post about World of Warcraft (WoW). In it Sci Fi Author Charlie Stross attempts to explain to someone from 1977 how Gnomes dropped from the sky in the shape of a URL advertisement in WoW. He unpacks 30 years of assumed knowledge (what is the internet, what is a PC, why do people play games dressed up as furry animals?). As Raph Koster noted this represents pre-traumatic stress disorder as we contemplate what this means for 2037.

Think of the ingenuity and focus it took to pull this stunt off. The intellect behind it is creative, transgressive, technical, and funny – all at the same time! Where are we teaching these skills in today’s classrooms? Talk about your 21st Century Skills.

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As a side note I happened to be wandering through Ironforge that day on my toon (Embir – Level 70 Mage on Stonemaul). I was stumped when I happened upon the neat piles of gnomes in front of the bank. It was only later that I realized what I’d seen.

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The Games Learning & Society Conference (GLS) kicked off this morning in Madison WI with a packed breakfast sessionat 8 AM.

gls_logo.gifThe conference has about 350 attendees and is an interesting mix of academics, teachers, and some business types. The agenda is so rich that it choosing sessions is agonizing.

James Paul Gee gave a great summary of the state of things as we munched on bacon and looked out over Lake Monona. He reminded us of the gaps that exist between kids experiences with games and their experience of school. One of his main points was that literacy is far more than phonics and decoding. The real challenge is helping kids master the complex academic language they need to succeed in Middle an High School. Young kids have no problem navigitating rich complicated technical text as they play today’s games. He got a good laugh by reading instructions from the back of a Yu-gi-oh card. These same students are not challenged in the same way at school. The money quote:

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MathOnNECC07.jpgThe first mutliplayer game tournament for education is being held. The event is being put on by Tabula Digita at ISTE in Atlanta (the show formerly known as NECC). A large crowd has gathered in the atrium above the exhibit floor to watch the final round.

This is a major step in the world of educational gaming. NT Etuk, the President of Tabula Digita, just said that this is really about the students. It is about meeting them where they are – kids living in a gaming world bringing the skills and abilities that go with that to their work as learners. Students have come from as far away as New York, California, and Oregon to compete today.

A new generation of educational games is reaching the market that is multiplayer, on-line, and richly three dimensional. Tabula Digita has the pole position in this emergent market and they are putting on a great show for the educators gathered to watch. The contest will pit teams of students against each other in game of using math skills to navigate and solve problems in an on-line world.

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Ren Reynolds over at Terra Novahas a good post today with a budding discussion thread about how the Virtual World industry should put together some agreed upon policies and procedures for children’s’ on-line safety.

For this to work sites need a combination of technical and behavioral approaches.

More below the fold…

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A new alternate reality game (ARG) launched recently to explore what an oil shock would look like. World With Oil is the game and it is incorporating all of the social media found on the web in this massively multiplayer experience.

The coolest part – it is only 4 days old and they already have resources for the classroom. Talk about the power of social media for learning.

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