Morning Day One

What are my feelings about Video Games in general?
I have the feeling, that expect most people here share, that video games are important. From my experience growing up with Videogames, I know they are engaging and fun to play... for a time. I played my first game of Pong sitting on the bed with my Mom. I got a Magnavox Odyssey2 game for Christmas one year and fought very hard with my friends to defend it against the Atari 2600 ( I did NOT have a betamax). In middle school, I played Ultima III on my commodore 64 (and later 128) for entire weekends at a time (taking breaks for Miami Vice and Saturday night live). And then I stopped. I went on to highschool and college - and never bought a game again - until World of Warcraft and began my research into educational games.

From my research, I know that games have a rich history that mirrors our technology and culture. They are violent, for the most part (and when viewed from a distance especially so). They are becoming more complex.

I think of them as a tool for someone to use. How we use them is the real issue.

What are my feelings about Video Games as learning tools?
I think the best way to use videogames (besides entertainment) is to develop learning and to aid teaching. An interesting thought (attributed to John Crawford, a pioneer game designer) is that games is how we learned before the classroom that we see today. And that the classroom is the system that hasn't shown it's worth as a teaching and learning format. The a modern classroom has been around for 100 years. Games since long before that.

I think games have a huge potential to expand what we do with classrooms or the idea of a public education system which is to produce educated civic minded participants in our society and culture. We can relate the skills and knowledge that is needed with games and play.

Thinking of scalability. The beauty of teaching games is the ability to be portable and massive without breaking down, which is exactly what the classroom does as you make it bigger. The opposite happens with a game - it gets better with the number of players - like a network.

Why do I think they are a good learning tool? They are quick, portable, engaging, use all the power of networks, etc. Allow for the best thinkings to engage with every learner. Allow for exploration and individual and group work as desired by the student. Can be assessed in various ways ... it goes on and on.

Are there problems with videogames as teaching tools? I think with any tool there is the opportunity of misuse and misunderstanding. That's unfortunate reality. But that what I hear to find out... How to build a game that meets the needs of Education, school AND learning.