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May 19
2011
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Use of the Information Age Education resources continues to grow. For a list of IAE’s six major resources and data about three of them, go to http://iae-pedia.org/Main_Page.
Information Age Education is now publishing some books for the Kindle and Kindle-format readers that are available for computers, iPad, and other devices. See http://iae-pedia.org/IAE_Kindle_Books.
The most recent of these books is:
Moursund, David (2011). Introduction to Problem Solving in the Information Age.
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Here are two Web documents that I recently accessed and that resonated with me. They tell us about a challenge that our educational system faces.
TED Talks (2010). Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain. Retrieved 5/19/2011 from http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html.
Orlando, John (5/16/2011). Failure is an option: Helping students learn from mistakes. Faculty Focus. Retrieved 5/19/2011 from http://facultyfocusemail.com/a/hBN0ShUB8X3cvB8az6GAAAicJw3/articles.
In brief summary, Tom Chatfield 16 minute video provides insight into why the electronic gaming industry is continuing to grow so rapidly. The intrinsic motivation and social interaction provided by games are well attuned to our brains. The games have an addictive quality that is hard to resist.
John Orlando’s article points out the value of being allowed to make mistakes in the process of learning. I am reminded of the quotes:
"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." (Niels Bohr; Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922; 1885–1962.)
In game playing, it is common to make mistakes ad players learn from their mistakes. In school, there is strong social and academic pressure to not make mistakes. Orlando argues that this is a serious flaw in our formal education system. Quoting Orlando:
But instead of using failure as a valuable teaching tool, education discourages it as, well, a sign of failure. A student is measured at various points along a course on how well they have mastered the material. Since each assignment is graded based on its proximity to success, and the final grade is determined by the aggregate of each individual grade, failure is preserved and carried with the student throughout the course. The result is that students become failure-adverse, demoralized by failure, and focused more on the grade than the education.
One way to reverse this trend is by using gaming in education. Students who fail in video games do not suffer the same blow to their self-esteem as those who receive a low grade on an exam or report card. They simply try it again. I’ve previously written about this topic in the article What Games Teach Us about Learning.
The schism between our current education system and the lives of learners outside of school continues to grow!
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written by http://www.juicycoutures-outlets.com, June 01, 2011
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Personally, I have seen the benefit of games when talking with my 9-year-old nephew Braeden. Braeden is naturally inquisitive and loves all games, both video and athletic. A few months ago he began asking me about various world leaders, such as Genghis Khan, Saladin, and Montezuma knowing that I was a social studies teacher and would know about such historical figures. I was shocked that he knew of such leaders in 3rd grade. I assumed he must have read a book about them because I was quite confident that he couldn’t be studying such people in 3rd grade. But instead, he learned all about these leaders from a video game and wanted to learn more. He wanted to find additional books and websites about these leaders. This is a perfect example of the ways that video games can pique a child’s interest and lead to additional learning.