More on Video Games

One of the really important things (to me) that didn't happen to get discussed in our seminar is the idea that all thinking, reading and writing is embedded in a material, social and cultural world and linked to the discovery of patterns in experience. While most of us can probably find agreement with this, it is harder to make the leap that this concept is a rationale for the use of video games in learning. I have sort of intuitively made that leap because it is so easy for me to visualize my students engaged in designing a video game (even if we lack the resources to actually produce it). When I can visualize engagement, trust me, it's worth it to me to pursue the idea, so I will be reading Ghee's entire book and figuring which of his 36 ways could have application in my own classroom.

What I'm also feeling strongly about is the sense that this embedding concept is key to helping students recognize/realize the tools and resources available to establishing their identities and roles in the community via civic engagement.

I'm also understanding the designing of a game as a type of mentor-text project. Once the class has that shared experience, we can refer back to it as we think through and read/explore/create other projects--especially writing. (How did you handle this when you were designing...? Remember what we discovered when...)

I also like the idea of getting my feet wet by designing a board game based on a narrative we have all read, or as a lit circle activity. It's a very doable first step, though I feel almost certain that my students would almost immediately start talking about its adaptation as a video game.