This weeks reading is all about Video Games and critical education in the digital age. I enjoyed this reading from Square (2008) and what he talked about in regards to video games and education.
When I started reading this, it reminded me of a Women in Tech conference I went to, where I heard from a young entrepreneur out of the west coast, who appeared on Dragon's Den for her educational game app for young kids starting to read. While her business was growing, I wondered how well her product actually worked with kids. The problem with all learning games, is that kids know they are learning about reading or about grammar or about math, it changes the relationship to the game. What was interesting about Square's article, when he talks about how video games present a given set of ideologies that a player must work within. Like studying novels or film, we are presented with a world which offers up opportunity for real critical learning and critical reflection on the ideologies that have been set out for us. Unlike movies and novels, we get to move through them and explore them at our own pace. This creates an interesting opportunity for learning. Work Cited: Kurt Squire. “Critical Education in an Interactive Age,” Mirror Images. Pp. 105-123.
1 Comment
11/19/2016 09:00:11 am
I think the comment you make about how, when children know they are playing a "learning game," it changes their relationship to the game, is interesting. In my class my students are currently playing "Math Prodigy" for extra skills practice. In general, I find them very motivated and excited about the game and playing it. However, I would agree, they are not as excited to play Prodigy as they are to play something like Minecraft. The only time this changes is when Prodigy, because it is "sanctioned" by the teacher, is more freely available at home than other "non-sanctioned" games. So I wonder, is it just because Prodigy is a "learning" game that students don't like it as much? It could certainly be argued that a lot of learning happens when playing Minecraft. Or is Prodigy just not as "good" as other games that are marketed for fun in its quality? So is the games themselves that create the responses of the players, or is it just the "learning game" name that pushes students to respond in a certain way?
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AuthorHigher Education professional, with a passion for student affairs and educational events. Currently working towards my M.Ed. Archives
November 2016
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