Implications for Education

This first aritcle I read, Good video games and good learning by James Paul Gee, had some interesting ideas.  As an avid gamer myself I've often thought about implications gaming can have on education.  The impact doesn't necessiarly have to come from within the classroom, but outside the classroom where games are traditionally played.  Gee suggests that there is more to gaming than many first percieve and that they shouldn't be written off so quickly.  There's no denying that many games are non-sensical, violent escapes from reality, but those games do not define the entire medium.  Gee points out what he calls "learning principals" found in a variety of games that promote cognition, creativity, and ingenuity.  We should look to incorporate more of these ideas into our classrooms.  Gee mentions that retaining facts is simply not enough to help students become problem solvers.  A combination of critical thinking activities (often seen in games) and fact retention will help to create a more complete student.

Gee's other article, Welcome to our Virtual worlds, brings up some of the same issues as in the previous one.  At first he mentions the drop out rate of high school students, a staggering 50%, and then goes on to explain why this might be happening.  Our students are growing up in a digital world, but our schools don't always relfect the world they live in.  Gee says a way to better connect with studnets may be through video games.  He sites Sim City as a way to learn to manage fincances, get organized, and create a whole world from nothing.  The 21st century learning needs something more.  They need (and want to be) digitally literate in a word that expects nothing less.