Games Empower Learners: Gee’s Speech at GLS4

James Paul Gee over at Arizona State is renowned among educational gamers because he wrote what is widely considered to be the first scholarly book on educational applications of videogames: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003). Recently, he keynoted the 4th annual Games, Learning, and Society Conference. Michael Abbott over at Gamasutra caught up with him and detailed the meat of his speech here. Some excerpts:

Gee sees the current U.S. educational system as inadequate to the task of addressing the problems of an increasingly complex world. He stated that “21st century learning must be about understanding complex systems,” and he believes many video games do a better job at this than the antiquated sender-receiver teaching model that dominates American classrooms.

Passion communities encourage and enable people of all ages to do extraordinary things. Gee believes the ‘amateur knowledge’ that arises from this immersive involvement often surpasses ‘expert knowledge,’ and cited fantasy baseball as an example.

Other highlights:

- Passion communities give users power and control, not necessarily money.

- He cites a young lady who learned PhotoShop in order to make better clothes for her Sims characters, later for avatars in Second Life. She remains uninterested in fashion, though, preferring computers because they empower her.

- Gee cited the game Portal, which could be construed as a parody of school life, as a means of allowing players tools to construct reality in the game’s environment. RL schools should be like this, Gee mused. “Education isn’t about telling people stuff, it’s about giving them tools that enable them to see the world in a new and useful way.”

- Complex games engender involvement in whole new ways for players. Mods allow players to manipulate the environment in ways they see fit. Mods are tools allowing players to put personal play theories to the test.

Abbot sums up:

Gee clearly situates video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy with genuine power to transform students and equip them to address complex problems.

References:
Abbot, M. (2008, July 14). Analysis: Games create ‘passion communities’ for learning. Gamasutra. [Online]. Available: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19389

Controversy Over Industry Survey Results

Kudos to Gamasutra, one of the best sites out there covering all aspects of the gaming world, for reporting on the ongoing battle between the Entertainment Software Association and the Hill & Knowlton PR company.

Hill & Knowlton conducted a survey through Opinion Research Corporation regarding public attitudes toward videogames. A total of 1,147 respondents were polled, with 60% indicating agreement with the notion that the government should regulate games with mature content. Various other statistics from the study were released, which Gamasutra covers here.

An existing rating system is already in place, albeit a volunteer one similar to that in use by Hollywood movie studios. The ESA disputes the research findings released by Hill & Knowlton, saying it casts the gaming industry in a skewed light. Specifically, the ESA levels an accusation of lying by omission:

“The research released today was conducted by Hill & Knowlton for a proposal the agency made to the ESA this summer, but only a portion of it was released publicly now. Hill & Knowlton’s decision to release these findings was both unprofessional and unethical and its timing is questionable. The research was done this summer and only performed in an effort to help Hill & Knowlton win our business.

In addition, the release of only part of the findings paints an inaccurate picture of the entertainment software industry. The other research conducted by agency but not released showed:

- More than two-thirds of 18-34 year olds currently play video games;

- Less than 1 in 5 Americans think playing video games is a negative way to spend time with friends and family;

- More than half of families think that video games are a positive way to spend time together;

- Educational video games are perceived to provide more learning than TV or DVDs.” [emphasis added]

Finally, the ESA released the original PowerPoint presentation delivered by Hill & Knowlton containing extra information on the research in question.

The Day the Big Sites Came Calling

Normally, I’m the one scanning through major videogame discussion sites such as Gamasutra and Kotaku, looking for material related to educational videogames. This week, the opposite occurred, and it has been most interesting.

It all started when Simon Carless over at GameSetWatch.com mentioned my post on teaching ESL through MMORPGs. I started seeing traffic right away from Carless’ link, and noted GameSetWatch is in Technorati’s Top 10,000 blogs. (GameSetWatch is run by the same folks that bring us Gamasutra, one of the uber-gaming discussion sites. Carliss serves as editor for both).

In due course, Maggie Greene over at Kotaku read Carliss’ post, then read John Water’s article in THE Journal regarding ESL in MMORPGs, and blogged about it here. Carliss also linked to my original post on the article, and traffic has been coming in ever since.

What is most interesting are the posts to Greene’s article from English speaking players who picked up some Japanese or other languages through playing off-shore MMOPRGs.

All told, it was a nice week for the blog…