College Teaching & Learning Conference

GAMING & LEARNING? TAKING A LOOK BEYOND THE

BOOK

GAMING & LEARNING

Video Excerpt – James Paul GeePre-Reading Blog In Class Discussion – Steven JohnsonReading – James Paul GeeAction Research Project

REALITY LEARNING

James Paul Gee

VIDEO EXCERPT

PRE-READING BLOG

“…a false premise: that the intelligence of these games lies in their content, in the themes and characters they represent.” (p. 57)

Excerpts

CONTENT

“You have to shed your expectations about older cultural forms to make sense of the new.” (p. 39)

Excerpts

CULTURAL FORMS

“We need to think, talk, and listen. When we tell students that popular culture has no place in classroom discussions, we are signaling to them that what they learn in school has little to do with the things that matter to them at home.” (p. 229)

Excerpts

POPULAR CULTURE

“I think there is another way to assess the social virtue of pop culture, one that looks at media as a kind of cognitive workout, not as a series of life lessons.” (p. 14)

Excerpts

COGNITIVE WORKOUT

“’You’re supposed to figure out what you’re supposed to do.’ You have to probe the depths of the game’s logic to make sense of it, and like most probing expeditions, you get results by trial and error, by stumbling across things, by following hunches.” (pp. 42-43)

Excerpts

TRIAL AND ERROR

1. Active, Critical Learning

2. Design3. Semiotic4. Semiotic Domains5. Metalevel Thinking6. “Psychosocial

Moratorium”7. Committed Learning8. Identity9. Self-Knowledge

10.Amplification of Input

11.Achievement12.Practice13.Ongoing Learning14.“Regime of

Competence”15.Probing16.Multiple Routes17.Situated Meaning18.Text

36 PRINCIPLES

19.Intertextual20.Multimodal21.“Material

Intelligence”22.Intuitive Knowledge23.Subset24.Incremental25.Concentrated

Sample26.Bottom-up Basic

Skills27.Explicit Information

On-Demand and Just-In-Time

28.Discovery29.Transfer30.Cultural Models about

the World31.Cultural Models about

Learning32.Cultural Models about

Semiotic Domains33.Distributed34.Dispersed35.Affinity Group36.Insider

36 PRINCIPLES

Option 1 - Interview a gamerOption 2 - Play a game

DemographicsQuestionsFindingsDiscussion

Qualitative Research Paper Requirements

REALITY LEARNING

Melissa Farrish

GAMING RESEARCH: INTERVIEW WITH A GAMER

Logan, age 14Middle school studentAn avid “gamer” since the age of 3Spends 6 to 14 hours per day playing

games

SUBJECT

Credits reading skills to gaming Recently scored at the college level on the

Star test for reading comprehension Reading and understanding text is a central

part of many games According to Gee (2007), video games have

“a great deal to teach us about how reading works when people actually understand what they are reading” (p. 96).

READING

Plays with friends and e-FriendsSocial experience Distribution of knowledge and skills

SOCIAL ASPECT

ADVENTUREAbility to be adventurousTakes risks, explores, and tries new

thingsMakes his own decisions

A desire to see how the story will endMotivated to successfully master the

highest levelPersonal satisfactionAbility to create

CHALLENGE

IN THE CLASSROOM

Spark interest and enthusiasmMove from "skill and drill" to forms of

assessment integrated into the learning Ability to teach at each child’s levelCreate a “network” of learning following

the dispersed (#34) and affinity group (#35) principles.

Ingrida Barker

GAMING RESEARCH: LEARNING OR WASTING

TIME?

Middle School English Language Arts Teacher

Teacher WV Virtual School Spanish I Facilitator Principal of Curriculum and Instruction

at River View High School Doctoral Student at

ABOUT ME

Not a Gamer!Benefits of Playing and Creating GamesGlobaloria and Dr. Idit CapertonNetworked world

PRE-READING

Jason, Male, late 20s, Southern West Virginia

IT Specialist Changed His Name Cisco Systems Networking Academy

Graduate Systems Development Courses Passionate Gamer for 20 Years

SUBJECT

• Ongoing, committed learning to retrieve the treasure

• Clear identification of setting and quest to follow internal and external grammars of the game

• Navigation of content and social practices/ views established by affinity groups.

• Learning from mistakes - psychosocial moratorium and risk taking (p. 222)

OBSERVATIONS

Games help players “understand and produce meanings in a particular semiotic domain” and “think about the domains at a ‘meta’ level as a complex system of interrelated parts.” (p. 25)

Critical, active learning in the virtual world of games forces gamers to make novel decisions to adapt to increasing levels of challenge and collaborate with others to build knowledge and skills.

Passive to Active Learning from Games

IMPLICATIONS

Require Practice Provide Feedback Encourage Trial and Error Facilitate Perseverance to Mastery Scaffold Learning Apply Concepts to New Situations

TEACHERS CAN

Lee Ann Hvidak PorterGAME ON FOR GORDON

My Initial Thoughts and AttitudesSpecial Intelligence Communicator

Sergeant in USMCAge 25No Post High School DegreeMarried to “Alyx”Plays FPS (First Person Shooters)

THE INTERVIEW

e-FriendsMeeting PeopleCliques – Young Crowd / Old Crowd

SOCIAL ASPECTS

Active and Passive LearningStrategiesChoices Determine OutcomesDifferent Styles

CONNECTIONS

Incorporate Interactive ActivitiesMore Meaningful ChallengesAvoid Teaching Concepts in IsolationChoicesUltimate Goal…to Educate!

CLASSROOMS

A Different Kind of Learning OccursLearning Occurs in Different PlacesA Different Kind of AssessmentGet a First Hand ExperienceHow Do You Spend Your Time?

PERCEPTIONS

Gee, J. P. (2012). How complex gaming environments can help young people solve problems and innovate in a world that is constantly changing. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/15732568

Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Johnson, S. (2006). Everything bad is good for you: How today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books.

Microsoft. (2013). Microsoft Clip Art.

REFERENCES