im surprised at how much I didn't like this man or his thoughts. I thought I would be quite open minded, and jump on board and we could go ahead and bring games into the classroom.... mr gee probably even thought we could bring sexy back together. but, then i read and found the following that i have a problem with, to one extent or another
- Players are thereby encouraged to take risks, explore, and try new things. In fact, in a game, failure is a good thing. Facing a boss, the player uses initial failures as ways to find the boss’s pattern and to gain feedback about the progress being made. School too often allows much less space for risk, exploration, and failure.
- I read this and think of how this doesn't work in the real world (or, perhaps, it shouldn't.) I don't think a good, practical skill is figuring out how to beat the boss. While I concede that assessment provides feedback on how to beat the "boss" that might be a class's curriculum, the idea he discusses of being able to read directions immediately before a task, go try the task, and then go back and read the directions again isn't realistic. Should more opportunities for risk and exploration without the fear of consequence be worked into the learning experience? Yes. But there also needs to be communication that trial and error and going back to read the directions after you've already tried isn't always effective, and might cost you a job.
- Games almost always give verbal information either “just in time”—that is, right when players need and can use it—or “on demand”, that is, when the player feels a need for it, wants it, is ready for it, and can make good use of it. Information should work the same way in school.
- My initial response is to just say "no." Some instruction and information this way -- ok. But all? What does that teach about the learning process, about retention of knowledge, about real life? We aren't spoon fed what we need to know right when we need to know it -- it is often a painstaking process of recollection and work to arrive at the knowledge of what to do and when to do it.
- You have to inhabit the identity the game offers (be it Battle Mage or field biologist) and you have to play by the rules. You have to discover what the rules are and how they can best be leveraged to accomplish goals.
- Yes. learn the rules -- figure out how to use them to help you. Rules are not just preventative or forms of limitation. I think the most important part of this is the DISCOVERY of the rules -- not just being taught them.
- Players help “write” the worlds they live in—in school, they should help “write” the domain and the curriculum they study
- This speak to the Wiggins reading for 511; spurring students to ask questions and deepen their interest and understanding. In this way, students are writing their world, and their curriculum because of what they are interested in and what they want to know more about, because of their critical engagement with the content rather than just passively accepting it.
So... in the end....
bring sexy back? yes. need to be convinced that video games in the classroom are the way to do it? also yes.
Grace&Peace,
Emily
In a lose connection, i post this video of Tracy Morgan because I have seen a lot of video of him being drunk on late night talk shows. He takes his shirt off, and I have to believe he has at one point stated he is bringing sexy back. This video is unrelated to that but... there is your bridge.
"we are a racist country, the end!" - Tracy Morgan
I hate to sound like a pessimist, but, with some classes, you aren't going to be able to do all that. I remember being so frustrated with my peers in grade school because I was the only one interested in something. I know there were times when I had to be the smarter than the group. I just don't want you to have an apoplexy if some groups of kids are flat out impossible; you will have some at some point.
ReplyDeleteOne of my mom's coworkers came up with a delightful mental image for teachers when dealing with especially bad kids - picture them in a shock collar, like the kind dogs use. Picture that, laugh, and let your blood pressure go down. :)
CEC - Im not sure I agree. While your engagement with the topic may have lead you to be the smartest individual in the group, I maintain the other experiences of group members would have made the group more well rounded and, if you will, smarter. A teacher could have sensed this and tried to help you (the interested student) help your peers to get into the topic and at least form and contribute opinions.
ReplyDeleteEmily, you've given all of us a lot to think about. I want to respond to a couple of issues that you raise. Regarding your first point, I appreciate your caution that, in the real world, we often don't have the luxury of failing, going back to the manual (or whatever the reference source of information might be) and trying again (and again). I think that schools as they are--for better or for worse--are pretty good at bringing this lesson home. I read the point about "beating the boss" in a little more metaphoric sense, though. I thought he was pointing towards the ways in which students (with no formal training) learn to "read" their teachers and decipher (or "discover" the rules as you phrase it later) what it is that we want and then try to provide it for us. That's a useful skill, but it *does* keep the focus on external motivation rather than internal, so I think that Gee is open to critique on that front.
ReplyDeleteI also resonate to your comments about getting information "just in time." That's an attractive goal in many ways, but in some ways it feels fanciful and unrealistic. The *idea* made me think of the point you recall later on, however, regarding the relationship between textbooks and experience/classroom work, which is partially captured with his idea of "performance before competence," which does foreground a "learning by doing" orientation that I find praiseworthy.
Thanks for the thoughtful post, Emily.
Holy information overload (and some of which we don't want to think about...James Paul Gee bringing sexy back...maybe I actually want to see that)!
ReplyDeleteI liked most of what Gee had to offer though. His idea of the manual being a text book is a novel theory. He touches on some ideas that John Dewey (aka Jesus) first hypothesized. Students need to learn by doing, and they use the text as a tool for clarification. They first need to understand the process first, and let the other stuff fall into place. Speaking from experience, I learn better when doing performing a task, then going back for clarification. It gives me a point of reference.
Gee made some abstract comparisons in saying all video games are methods of assessment, they're simply done in different arenas. I don't really agree with that one, but I can see his point, albeit from a distance. I don't really think it's a very well-founded point.
And I completely agree with you in the notion that information giving should happen right when you need it. This would work in an ideal world, but this would never work in the real world. If this was the case, the students would constantly have to re-learn information they should have learned so long ago. I strongly agree with you.
I love Tracy Morgan.
I've been trying to think back to understand if and how my work environments have encouraged failure. I've done a lot of work at the edges of what my community knew how to do -- geophysics research and management consulting are both about solving problems no one knows how to solve. And I think being willing to fail is a big part of those processes -- it's not the goal, but if you're too afraid of failure, you won't try anything or make any progress.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading at one point that Bill Gates used to ask Microsoft hires about their biggest failure and what they learned from it -- not because he wanted people to fail, but he needed people who knew how to fail and use it to create something even better.