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Game News Online Game Education Why learning is child's play
| Why learning is child's play |
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| Friday, 13 March 2009 | |
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Why learning is child's play September 7, 2006 LiveWire  An academic is urging more use of games, writes Jason Hill. ONE highly respected academic who espouses the value of interactive games in education believes the commercial game industry will never realise the full potential of educational gaming. Professor James Paul Gee, author of the book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, last month urged Australian academics to harness the exciting possibilities of the medium and create games that are powerful learning tools. "Commercial games have only explored about 1 per cent of the possibilities, have barely touched upon their potential for creativity and innovation," he says. "The commercial industry has a tendency to make the same game over and over. It's more likely to make the 17th James Bond than an innovative game." Dr Gee believes interactive games are important learning tools because they allow "performance before confidence". He cites games such as Full Spectrum Warrior and SWAT 4 as powerful examples, saying that the computer characters transfer their knowledge to the players as they experiment with tactics. Strategy games such as Rise of Nations and Civilization are also powerful learning tools, according to Dr Gee, offering players the chance to build a "history of problem solving themselves rather than just reading about others". In an interesting use of a game to help teach history, African American children played as native Americans, says Dr Gee. "The kids learnt not just what happened in the past, but what could have happened and how to avoid it happening again." Australian schools and universities should encourage students to make their own games, he says. "If kids build their own games, they have to be a theoretician of other people's learning, providing interesting choices so the player will have stories and experiences of their own. More kids will produce and modify their own games, and there will be quite a movement to generate their own communities so they can share ideas, critique each others' work and even compete against commercial games." Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/games/why-learning-is-childs-play/2006/09/06/1157222139415.html Email This Hits: 165 Comments (0)
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