Working in Movement

Almost everywhere you go, you see kids playing video games--at home, in arcades, or almost anywhere thanks to shrinking portable gaming devices. Ya, kids hack away on games almost everywhere. But, for the most part, not while they are in school. There's game playing and then there's learning. Two different things, right?

Not necessarily, according to James Paul Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Gee recently spoke at the International Conference on Educational Multimedia in Canada. His talk was nicely summarized by Stephen Downes in Learning By Design: James Paul Gee at RIMA ICEF on his website.

Gee's major premise is that today's computer games embody better learning than most schools. One of his key observations: The task accomplished by game designers, he observed wryly, "would be like charging fifty dollars to learn algebra. That's probably not going to get him many invitations to speak at PTA meetings.

But the learning of which he speaks is near and dear to those of us steeped in experiential learning disciplines like the Feldenkrais Method. And it's experiential learning that emerges out of the videogaming experience, according to Gee. Here are a few quotes from the article:

"Words are only meaningful when they can be related to experiences," said Gee. If I say "I spilled the coffee," this has a different meaning depending on whether I ask for a broom or a mop. You cannot create that context ahead of time - it has to be part of the experience. And in just the same way, the science text doesn't make any sense to someone who has not done any science (though it makes a great deal of sense to an experienced scientist)."

In gaming, a sandbox is the initial few levels or training area where a player masters simple skills with minimal risk. What's important is that the sandbox is like playing the game, but in situations where there are no major consequences. They provide a "psycho-social moratorium" for people to let them find their feet in the new environment before more serious challenges are to be faced.

If we can create and run a city using Sim City, then the system on which students learn ought to be, as Gee says, a fishtank or sandbox version of the system we actually use to run the city. And while students may have only a small impact at first, it will be no doubt encouraging for them to realize that they are actually and in a meaningful way participating in civic governance.

I like this stuff. Learn from experience, but start in a safe, easy environment and stay there until you're ready for the next level. Hopefully he isn't being totally dismissed by the policy makers that have such a big say over how formal education works (or doesn't).