I have talked about this before but I think that we need to agree on what we are trying to accomplish in education. Video games are great ways to learn I don't deny that, but are they in line to allow learning what we consider knowledge that schools should be teaching. The argument I hear is that currently schools don't even teach what an adult needs to know in the world. The world seems to be functioning just fine with people who supposedly haven't been taught what they need to know. Do we really need to teach it then? Is it possible that one just learns it and that if schools take care of the critical thinking most people can learn the specifics of our brave new world.
If education should prepare people for what they are going to be doing day to day we should throw out history and start teaching driving, I do a solid hour of that every day. We don't because we assume that people will learn to drive as part of growing up, if they need it they will learn it. A lot of technology is that way too. If it is so ubiquitous in society and we should be teaching it, how did all the people who are currently using (and improving it) learn it, apparently not in the technology phobic schools.
What I learned is that there do not seem to be games that can teach academic subjects that match the level that games designed for entertainment. I worry that the video game apologists think that just saying that what the engaging video games teach is good does not address any common values on what should be taught in schools and that is where we really need to start.
I found out that Supercharged!, the software that taught unintuitive theories of physics is not available, it was developed on a non PC system at MIT. None of the other games developed by the same lab seem to be available. So what is it going to take to develop games that can address academic subject and achieve some sort of interest, be truly endogenous. It seems a huge hurdle to overcome.
The promise of Supercharged! intrigued me. If such games can be developed and can clarify and maintain interest in subject that loose learners in traditional teaching settings I say bring them on. I am no programmer so it is going to take some inspiration on someones part to create these games
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You said: The argument I hear is that currently schools don't even teach what an adult needs to know in the world. The world seems to be functioning just fine with people who supposedly haven't been taught what they need to know. Do we really need to teach it then?
ReplyDeleteBy that logic, given all the people that don't ever use math beyond what they learned in elementary school...why do we need to teach high school math? Couldn't we get by with just enough math classes for the kids who really NEED to know higher math and just let everyone else stop taking math in 5th grade?