Video Games and Learning: A Non-going Process

Hey, folks! Happy Monday!

I told you all that I’d be writing periodically to tell you about the fascinating things I’ve been finding out about video games in my “Video Games and Learning” Coursera course.
Turns out, not much.

Fact of the matter is, outside of an educational perspective, I could have written most of the material for the course. Talking about the elements of game design that teach a player, how increasing complexity and introducing game elements at different times affects the learning curve, etc. etc. I know this stuff because I’m a gamer (and an attentive one, at that), but the course was written for non-gamers who think it’s a fabulous idea to use games in the classroom.

I’m not on a pedestal, I’m not in an ivory tower. Educators, USE YOUR GAMES. Use MY games! Education departments of the world, hire programmers to work full-time on producing learning games for people of all grade levels and subject areas. Imagine how AWESOME it’d be if you got to kill monsters in “Wuthering Heights: The RPG,” or create epic physics-based puzzles in “Anatomy and Physiology: Zombie Edition.” I understand that courses like this give educators a leg up when figuring out how to teach difficult concepts in a way children will react to, and I appreciate that these resources are out there to improve our education and our teachers.

But I guess I’m approaching education from a game design perspective, as opposed to approaching game design from an education perspective, and I was sorely disappointed. I’ll do a post Friday about my final thoughts on the course, but other than that… sorry, folks! Didn’t turn out to be as beneficial as I had hoped!

Here’s a picture of 9 Charmanders driving a golf cart to make you feel better.

 

 

See you Friday!

~AG

Advertisements