Let me first start by saying I’m very blessed to have two wonderful teenage kids who are well mannered and behaved and I love them both dearly. I have a 15 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. My daughter spends little time in front of the television or computer (other than a few minutes to check her MySpace). She does well in school and is very self-directed when it comes to her school work. In her free time she’ll turn her hip-hop music on so all the neighbors can hear, try on 18 different outfits and leave them all on the floor. She’ll create 27 new hairstyles; leaving all the bobby pins, curling iron, hot rollers, flat iron, blow dryer, crimping iron, barrettes, and hairspray out on the bathroom counter. She’ll paint each fingernail and toe nail with an intricate design. If you ask her to play DDR she will, and perhaps Mario Cart once in awhile, but other than that she doesn’t play much in the way of video games.
If I would let him, my son can spend 12 straight hours playing World War Craft (WOW). The boy lives to game. He doesn’t make a mess around the house because sitting in front of the computer or the T.V. doesn’t require that he pull out a lot of stuff. We have set rules in the house regarding his gaming privileges. He must have all his homework done prior to gaming. How can it be, two kids raised in the same house can be total opposites?
So what is this attraction to gaming? My son tells me it is because the game offers competition (although when it comes to sports he is not competitive – he hates seeing the other guy lose), skill is required, sometimes you get lucky, and the risk of dying. He is normally a quiet kid; however in front of the game, I’ve witnessed him show excitement, frustration, and relief (I hear a lot of Phewwwws). Do I worry about him gaming too much. Sure, I’m a mom.
Mark Wagner, a Walden graduate, helped relieve some of my worries pertaining to gaming, with his dissertation. Mark’s dissertation on Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing games (MMORPs) revealed “MMORPGs might be useful for helping students develop 21st Century Skills such as critical thinking, creativity, comfort with computer use, fluency in multimedia, economic literacy, and global awareness” You can view more of his result on his blog at http://edtechlife.com/?p=1960
On a post, dated Feb. 06, 2008, Mark shares a story of meeting with a superintendent http://edtechlife.com/?p=1943 . Interestingly enough, the 51 year old superintendent is an avid WOW player. The superintendent is interested in creating a 3D Virtual School. Rather than using a ‘flat’ medium like Blackboard, he believes a 3D virtual school would enhance community and students would be able to do rather than memorize
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2 comments:
Greetings Cyndi,
The superintendent had a great idea concerning 3-D school environments. Jean Haefner's presentation of Second Life as a virtual learning environment gave me some ideas as to how a student would be able to maneuver a virtual school. They could send their avatars over to other students and have a discussion. They could also look at the boards in the room for class notes. I am hoping to get to do this in my school district, but it will take some time.
Hello,
It is amazing how video games can captivated people. James Gee has has made very two important observations about video games. First, the video game industry has found the formula to getting participants to learn the long, hard,and complex video games without giving up so easily. This leads to his second point. Many of the same teaching and learning principles colleges have been teaching educators to use in the classroom, you will find in good video games. Gee identified 36 principles.
Tango
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