“School play”
Comments: 1 - Date: January 2nd, 2008 - Categories: Creativity, Innovation, Learning, Uncategorized
As I mentioned in my last blog post, one of the most interesting things about the Totally Wired forum was hearing Katie Salen talk about games in education.
In her introduction (PDF) to a new volume entitled “Ecology of Games,” Salen quotes Nobel laureate Herbert Simon: “the meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it.” Salen believes that games are a perfect way to teach these “new media literacy skills.”
The use of games in school is controversial, and it’s easy to see why.
On one hand, learning through play is so fundamentally natural that it transcends species.
Moreover, games are especially relevant to digital natives. A recent study found that games are the most popular use of the internet among kids in the US aged 6 to 11 — far more than homework, email, music, video, or just surfing.
On the other hand, playing games in school clashes with a long held cultural belief in the separation of work and play.
“Education and entertainment are two different processes,” Iowa State journalism professor Michael Bugeja recently told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “They require two different interfaces. Our whole society is being eroded by entertainment.”
Personally, I have no doubt that kids can and do learn a lot from games. Salen has amply proven this with a plethora of ideas and insights she’s gained by looking at education through the eyes of a game designer. I came away from Totally Wired wondering what other sundry subjects could be illuminated by game design, Freakonomics-style.
Still, I wonder how much of this game-based learning needs to happen in schools. Obviously kids need no encouragement to play. Why not focus on making educational games kids will want to play on their own time, and invest school time in activities most kids won’t do on their own, like read Shakespeare, or build robots?
To be fair, kids will undoubtedly learn more from games when guided by teachers and well designed curricula. As for traditional literacies, Salen acknowledges their importance, and believes they should be taught in tandem. In fact, she told the audience last week, “for kids and even for us, it’s not a huge distinction anymore.”
At any rate, soon Salen’s theories will be put to a dramatic test. She’s currently spearheading development of The Game School, an experimental public school in New York City that, according to its website, “will use game design and game-inspired methods to teach critical 21st century skills and literacies.” Talk about an exciting experiment! From a July article in Wired News:
Right now, the ideas are vague but intriguing: Alternate reality games could be used to study science, as those players typically seek out and analyze data, and then propose and test their hypotheses. Salen also envisions harnessing the creative urges that kids already express through fan fiction, blogging and the creation of avatars and online identities.
How well this works remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure though: a lot of fun will be had finding out.
Comment by Michael Bugeja - January 2, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
Thanks for thinking through this issue. The post here attempts to show both sides, and I appreciate that.
To understand my position, however, you have to make the distinction between the generation gap between digital natives vs. immigrants. The Baby Boomer generation (mine) entertained their children and grandchildren with interactive toys since the cradle, while we had the benefit of a literary education. Of course we see games in a different way than our learners, and anyone who doesn’t see this knows very little about technology (embedded motives in interfaces and applications) and the philosophy thereof.
Moreover, the separation of work and play is a real issue. I enjoy video games, but I don’t want to learn a blessed thing when I’m a GDI general fighting NOD. Neither do I want to download lectures on my free iPod at Duke. And before we invest in an experimental SIMS-based game, like Second Life, let’s be sure we understand what the application is programmed to do.
I weary of educators, especially from the Humanities (and I have an English Ph.D., by the way), telling us about the great learning potentialities in devices programmed for revenue generation. So when discussing issues such as this, let’s do so from a technological perspective and then assess whether the model works outside of a forced or coerced so-called engagement model in class.
Which brings me to my final point: engagement. I think we have reached the tipping point with the annual Indiana survey that fails to assess the difference between engagement and true achievement.
Learning can be difficult for the uninspired, and it is our job to inspire learners without looking to technology to do so, especially when we have little knowledge of technology, outside of what we know as consumers.