I really enjoyed reading these articles because this
is something that I personally am extremely interested in. James Paul Gee says
that digital media, video games in particular, work just like books. He focused
on the game, World of Worldcraft, which is the most widely played multiplayer game
in the world. He talks about how social gaming forces you to solve problems by
working together and integrating different skill sets. Each player must also
understand the big picture of the game. He also talks about Portal, which is
one of my favorite games of all time. The world of Portal follows all the laws
of physics to solve complex puzzles forcing the player to think outside of the
box.
Here is my gaming library on Steam, a gaming platform for computers. Here you can see many different games, all with different concepts, puzzles, and information to learn.
He then moves on to talk about how playing a game is
only part of the understanding. After people play the game, they go online to
discuss, modify, and research more about the game. Along with Portal, I’m doing
my 20% on Minecraft which explores this same dynamic. People go online and
explore the different deeper learning that can be obtained from playing the games.
Gee says just this, “Far from there being no
articulation and language of the knowledge being developed in the game, there’s
a whole community devoted to doing just that.”
Kurt Squire proposes that gamers
often ask after playing a game, “Well, why are things the way they are?” by
relating the game world to what is going on in the real world. So what they are
trying to do with educational games is design and build games around current
issues, and then get kids motivated to
get the skills to go out and solve these problems as a direct result of playing
games. He also talks about game culture and social organization around them
just like James Paul Gee. I have personally experienced this when I play
Minecraft and communicate through the subreddit with other players where I can
share my work and see all of theirs.
In the classroom video, the teacher
talks about how every child is a gamer. The teacher focuses specifically on
MinecraftEdu, which is what my project is on. Being someone who really
understands this game, I feel like I teach very well through games like
Minecraft. This video really got me excited for my project and hopefully
working with students in the future through this type of medium.
Here is a barn that I built on my Minecraft server. This took many hors of collecting materials and creative thinking:
I think that you made a good point about how playing the game is only half of the learning and that discussion that comes after it constitutes the other half; that's something I'm trying to do in my board game. I could easily see how Minecraft could be a good educational tool. I tried it out once but I didn't really have any specific goals so I got bored, but in a classroom setting I suppose you would have clear objectives in the game.
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