Unlike the topic of Twitter, after discussing the use of gaming in education in Friday's class, I have become more concrete in my assertion that the negatives of gaming do not outweigh the positives.
Sure, gaming CAN build team working skills and CAN increase trust between players, but this isn't always the case. Take for example, Leeroy Jenkins:
Before Leeroy's defection, we do see the players working together to increase their odd of success to approximately 32.33 (repeating of course) percent chance of survival. So we cannot refute the team building and trust building skills gaming can provide.
Despite these positives, I still hold that the negatives far outweigh the positives. Increasing the amount of gaming will lead to a generation of socially awkward, ill-prepared and far undereducated adults. Instead of having children focus their energy on solving real-world issues in the gaming world, why don't we have them focus on SOLVING REAL WORLD ISSUES IN THE REAL WORLD!? What if we took the idea of making computer games about solving real world issues, and apply it into lesson plans where students work as teams to come up with ideas on how to solve them?
But enough about the gaming... Let's talk about the second part of the class: Podcasts.
I'm not going to lie, before we discussed what a podcast was I had NO idea what they were! But after learning what they were and how easy they were to make, I thought this would be a great tool for kids to convey their understanding, and for teachers to provide additional support when kids need it.
Instead of making powerpoints and handouts all the time, teachers and students can create a podcast containing the information they want to present in a fun, and easily-accessible way.
An added bonus to this is the fact that I can FINALLY have a platform to show-off all the different "characters" I've been practicing all these years! Just like Sweet Dee does here:
Thanks for the hair comments, your hair looks great as well! I completely agree with you Kyle on the whole gaming thing. The negatives defiantly outweigh the positives. Allowing the children of our society to focus their lives and enhance their learning through gaming will create a society of anti-social students who will not be prepared for the real world. The thought of creating a reality that is more game focused actually scares me! I think games are great for recreation, but learning in the classroom has a completely different purpose.
ReplyDeleteGames, games, games. So much to say. There is a lot of learning and knowledge that comes out of them, but since they are not monitored by parents or teachers, there are limitations on application. But like your final statement on games Kyle, if you prompt your gamer student about what they really are learning, they might be surprised once they evaluate themselves and see they are learning valuable skills. I think we have to pull that stuff out of them, or they will just see games as an escape.
ReplyDeleteI still think games can be a worthwhile learning tool. I know we haven't learned it officially, but games can be (and actually are) used for "scaffolding and supporting" learners, especially when real life experiential learning can be bad if one is not proficient yet. Take flight simulators for pilots and astronauts. It costs like $2 million dollars per fighter plane. I'd rather have Maverick train on a video game in order to level up his competence before he Leeroy Jenkins himself into the ocean. GOOSE?! GOOSE?!
ReplyDeleteYou might disagree, but least I have chicken.