Friday, September 16, 2011

Portal and Prejudice

In our rush to embrace technology in schools there has been a sticking point that has given me some logistical difficulty, and that’s been the integration of Gaming in the classroom. I haven’t been outright dismissive of the idea, simply wary, and until this point mildly perplexed as to why. I believe I’m still associating gaming with locking myself alone in Mom’s basement after school and spending hours playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Despite the nearly two decades since, and a massively increased sophistication and social revolution in gaming, I still only see that little blue hedgehog running blindly across a screen...perhaps to a pharmacy to pick up a Ritalin prescription.

But that’s such an obsolete view of what gaming can mean to a classroom, and I’m beginning to grasp this. Fortunately this is not a new revelation to my colleague, Zack Blashkiw, and you can read his insightful thoughts on the matter here. Zack is right to point out that gaming communities are consistently at the forefront of new avenues for online socialization, and in turn that socialization is key to integrating a relevant teaching program to today’s youth. Far from the rudimentary number and language “games” filling the tech classes of yore, modern games (particularly those implementing level-building) encourage spatial reasoning, resource management, social collaboration, higher logic, etc. In the time it took me to write those examples the list probably grew half a page.

It occurs to me now that my prejudice towards gaming was based on the belief that games were based solely on fun, and so in turn their educational usefulness must be minimal. How silly that was, to assume that kids have to feel or even know that they’re being taught in order to learn something.

This evening I spent some time observing my nephew, turning four this October, and marveled at the way he uses his mother’s laptop. It’s intuitive, cautious and delicate, qualities immediately abandoned in literally every other aspect of his daily life. His is the generation I will be beginning my teaching career with, and in many ways they’re going to be lightyears ahead of us. Yet If his teachers keep an open mind, just imagine how much fun it could be.

Special thanks to @crutherford for supplying the video inspiring these musings. Please give it a look.

4 comments:

  1. Great Post Shawn. I don't think education has fully grasped the benefits (or not) of gaming in education. It will take future teachers like you to critically think about these teaching methods.
    You (and Zack) got me thinking more deeply about the issue - so I just spent the last hour writing a blog. http://pipedreams-education.ca/
    Great stuff.

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  2. Shawn-
    I really like how you mentioned level up styled gaming. I really think that objective based games do have a real potential for the classroom. They based on the idea that there is always something to build upon and work towards. Excellent post!
    -Adam

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  3. Shawn-
    This videoclip provided excellent fodder for your musings.The opportunity to game was not around when I was growing up. We had board games which have been far eclipsed by computer games.
    I recall teaching in a really tough area in the late 80's where to keep the highly unmotivated and truant school population interested and in attendance, we created interest days a few times a month. I worked with Gr. 7 and 8 boys who had to design their own board games. They had to create all of the elements to play it including the rules. Then they had to teach their game to their peers. These were not computerized at all but the skills that they learned even then involving collaboration, team problem solving and creative thinking are still those that go into computer-generated games. These intermediate students loved the experience and were totally immersed in the process and product.
    So yes, the medium has drastically changed but the basic skills remain. Integration of the curriculum and social skills are still key. Thank you for a thought-provoking post, one that took me back in time to my years at HWDSB's old and decrepit Hillcrest School, now replaced by a modern structure, one that that area of east Hamilton sorely deserved.

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  4. "This evening I spent some time observing my nephew, turning four this October, and marveled at the way he uses his mother’s laptop. It’s intuitive, cautious and delicate, qualities immediately abandoned in literally every other aspect of his daily life." I smiled when I read this because my 1 year old son is very careful with Mommy's iPhone and holds it as if it possesses a super-power. You are a great writer!

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