This article interviews the big shots in the field and asks them the same six questions about how gaming might be used in the classroom. There are some good quotes and summaries that can be used.
x
www.ict.usc.edu - Author's web site for his group at USC, focuses on future VR and immersive environments
Author interviews James Paul Gee, J.C. Herz, Randy Hinrichs, Marc Prensky and Ben Sawyer
All the interviewees make excellent reasoning for using games and simulations to learn
Schools are by-enlarged 19th century institutions (HS and college level)
Games by nature are community building, encourage discourse / negotiation, are collaborative so groups can co-think through problems (trade controller depending on who's better at the task / dynamically allocate resources, distributed / social decision making process)
Resistance to games in education by baby-boomer generation... younger PhDs will embrace them
Probably only takes an ad and a meeting- kids around campus will embrace this idea of making games / game mods, for the purpose of transforming their learning- we don't have to be the programmers
The sooner the better- the younger 'indigenous' gamer generation needs to let their culture flourish, not be held back by 'digital immigrants' (baby-boomer / older generations)
- 'digital immigrants' (baby-boomer / older generations not raised in the gaming era)
see paper (circled)
"Kids today are seeing more power-performanced learning in their popular culture than they're seeing in their schools."
Games are the "most engaging intellectual pastime that we have invented." (Prensky)
"In the not-too-distant future, virtually every college will have a game design program." (Gee, p. 63) (see the rest of the quote, it's great)
"Bring the students in, especially for thinking about instruction and how to evolve and do things differently." (p. 64)