Video Games

In this chapter, Gee discusses how video games can be an extension to the real world and learning can occur through playing games. When playing a video game, Gee discusses how learners take on specific roles as their characters and have skills that need to applied to their character ... the learner also needs to learn what skill the character has in order to work well as the character and complete the task. One of Gee's strong points is that videos games do promote earning but no in the way that most people expect learning to be done. When Gee discusses the learning taking place, it can be compared to a hands on approach in the classroom. The player or student is engaged in the world of the game/lesson and are able to connect with it because they are immersed within it. Students should have the ability to be hands on in the classroom but they need to have a purpose for doing it and reasoning behind it. Gee states that letting students do science without a purpose or set of guidelines can give too much freedom and lose focus of what the lesson is about. Students and gamers need to be given a task, decipher a way to work it out by using previous knowledge, apply what they think to be true and end up with results that will either have you switch your thinking for the next time around or give you insight as to why your reasoning was correct. Having engaging learning such as Gee mentions will keep students engaged and able to discuss their learning without just reciting facts and figures.

I think video games are a great way to learn in the classroom and promote hands on learning (which I LOVE). Students should have the experience of learning through something other than note taking or small group discussion. Having a hands on approach will let students have the feeling they are connected to the lesson as well as the game and benefit their understanding in the long run. However, I do not think video games would be good for the younger grades. I know many of my students play video games and know how to play them but I think trying to adapt them to the classroom would not be beneficial because they would not see the learning aspect of it. I think students need to have responsibility and monitor themselves and what their thinking while playing in order to link it to the lesson and I think some elementary students would struggle with that.