More on Gaming...

According to James Gee, one of the benefits of video games is that when you play them, there is constant assessment. The game evaluates every move you make and you know quite quickly if you made the right choice. He also says that in order to succeed at a video game, you have to learn from your mistakes. It is pretty much inevitable that you will fail at first, but this leads to a productive type of trial-and-error learning. These are attitudes about learning we would probably like to encourage in our classroom. But how do we do it? Is it possible?

First, I think we have to consider context when we compare our classroom to the experience of playing a video game. More specifically, we need to consider what is at stake in each situation. If I fail at a video game, I feel frustrated (sometimes pleasantly, sometimes not) and I try again. If I continue to fail, I put the game away. I might be angry or upset that I wasted my money on a game I can't play, but I won't lose any sleep over it. Worst case scenario--my ego is bruised (especially when I'm losing to a six year-old kid. Yes, this has happened to me...many times.) The game that is constantly assessing me is simply a creation of computer programming. I don't care what it thinks of me. There is relatively little at stake.

The classroom is, as they say, a whole 'nother story. Students are not assessed by computers. A teacher might use a computerized device to correct a test, but ultimately the teacher is making the assessment. Connected to this assessment is a perceived judgment. If I fail in class, I might feel like I'm letting down my teacher, my parents and myself. I do care about that. A lot. Of course teachers can alleviate some of this anxiety by being nurturing and supportive. However, I think some of those feelings will always exist and have an effect on students.

The other big difference between video games and a classroom is the content to be mastered. It doesn't really matter if I don't save the princess or win the virtual Super Bowl. It won't have much bearing on my immediate situation or my future. If I don't understand how to write an effective essay or master the concepts of basic Algebra, there will be consequences. In school we can't usually say, "Oh well. I don't get that. I'll just move on." New concepts introduced in a classroom typically build on previously learned skills so it's much more important to master the content. Failure to understand skills and content has implications for the future--grades, standardized tests, college acceptance, etc. It would be nice to say that those things aren't that important, but in our current system, they are.

I hope I don't sound pessimistic. I really like the way James Gee thinks and I support his ideas. I think we should make some serious changes to our system to encourage more of these ideals. I just think we have to probe some of these issues in order to figure out how to make them more of a reality in our classrooms.