Thursday, September 21, 2006
PSMonline forum
As a subscriber to PSM magazine (PlayStation Magazine), I have the recently posted a topic and some comments on their online forum www.psmonline.com The focus of my first topic was to get others subscribers to comment on video games in English class. As of this post, 34 users have viewed my topic and two have commented. Here's a link to my post video games in the classroom
Monday, September 18, 2006
Would Socrates Play Video Games?
Would Socrates play Video Games?
Will video games someday replace books in classrooms?
Marco Visscher seems to think so in his article Reading, Writing and Video Gaming
I agree with Visscher that video games can inspire creative problem solving. The trial and error exploration found in gaming can help develop sound research skills. Yet these skills are neatly contained within the game’s framework. Interpreting that framework is what I find most promising for education.
I’m very skeptical about using “educational” games in an ELA classroom. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Nathanial Hawthorne didn’t write their novels for the English classroom. Why should video game developers have to? A sense of artistic expression is lost when a text is specifically designed for the classroom. My future job as an English teacher is to get students to read and write critically about texts that are important to them and/or to our society. If a game is designed to be educational and is used primarily in a classroom setting, who will it be important too in the real world?
Visscher also addresses the standard arguments against gaming: they promote anti-social behavior, violent behavior, and are easy. There are now many articles that have shown these complaints to be groundless. Yet I commonly hear these unjustified accusations. First, reading a book is just as anti-social as playing video games. Second, no conclusive evidence has connected video game violence with real violence, and not all games are violent or sexually explicit. Finally, kids do not play video games because they are easy. More likely it is because good video games are challenging and meaningful. A good video game design uses an appropriate learning curve (i.e. the player is initially required to learn the game’s frame-work then apply it to more and more complex objectives). Just as English teachers traditionally critique the structure/organization of a novel, a video game’s frame-work can be critiqued. Visscher is right, video games need to be evaluated. Like attending a class discussion or a book club, evaluating a text with others improves analytic skills.
Marco Visscher seems to think so in his article Reading, Writing and Video Gaming
I agree with Visscher that video games can inspire creative problem solving. The trial and error exploration found in gaming can help develop sound research skills. Yet these skills are neatly contained within the game’s framework. Interpreting that framework is what I find most promising for education.
I’m very skeptical about using “educational” games in an ELA classroom. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Nathanial Hawthorne didn’t write their novels for the English classroom. Why should video game developers have to? A sense of artistic expression is lost when a text is specifically designed for the classroom. My future job as an English teacher is to get students to read and write critically about texts that are important to them and/or to our society. If a game is designed to be educational and is used primarily in a classroom setting, who will it be important too in the real world?
Visscher also addresses the standard arguments against gaming: they promote anti-social behavior, violent behavior, and are easy. There are now many articles that have shown these complaints to be groundless. Yet I commonly hear these unjustified accusations. First, reading a book is just as anti-social as playing video games. Second, no conclusive evidence has connected video game violence with real violence, and not all games are violent or sexually explicit. Finally, kids do not play video games because they are easy. More likely it is because good video games are challenging and meaningful. A good video game design uses an appropriate learning curve (i.e. the player is initially required to learn the game’s frame-work then apply it to more and more complex objectives). Just as English teachers traditionally critique the structure/organization of a novel, a video game’s frame-work can be critiqued. Visscher is right, video games need to be evaluated. Like attending a class discussion or a book club, evaluating a text with others improves analytic skills.
Matt
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