Learning and Leading

Take part in discussions at www.iste-community.org/groups/LandL.

READERSrespond

POLL RESULTS

Video Games: Harmful or Helpful?

The vast majority of respondents feel that the educational benefits
of video games far outweigh the concerns.

Harmful 27%

Helpful 73%

Re-Imagine Learning

Games don’t make teaching easier, nor add a spoonful of sugar. They are about distributed and transactional leadership—not instruction. We have to design for what is possible without killing either the game or the learning. You can’t integrate games into the classroom. You have to re-imagine how learning works.

Dean Groom Co-Founder, Massivelyminecraft.org Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Get Grounded

The fast pace and intensity of life is enough to spin anyone out of control. We all seek ways to ground ourselves. We might take a bath, drink a cup of tea, take a walk, or call a friend. Older children and teens appropriately gravitate to gaming because it provides a way for their brain to hyperfocus, and their body follows suit so they can get grounded. But when gaming cuts into other important aspects of life, it is an addiction.

Teresa Foulger Associate Professor, Arizona State University Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Best of Both Worlds

In my after-school Wo W [World of War-craft] club, the students guide their own learning through discussions and quests. They use game wikis, You Tube tutorials, and all the resources available to them without prompting and became part of a learning community. They drive their learning experiences, determine their own paths, resource their support and extension, and build learning networks.

Jennifer Garcia Learning Resources Centre Coordinator Sonzacate, Sonsonate, El Salvador

Part of a Balanced Play Diet A healthy “play diet” consists of far more than digital play. Too much of any type of play—even social, physical, or creative play—is not conducive to a child’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Appropriate balance and limits should be set based on a child’s developmental levels and interests. But many of the newest games involve other players, exercise, and the opportunity to innovate through creative digital play.

Randy Kulman President, Learning Works for Kids Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA

Gamify to Learn Even More

Students can learn through gamification—the process of applying video-game rules, mechanics, and conventions to real-world experiences. Successful gamification applies game design principles to learning situations. Whereas learning by playing video games presents intrinsic rewards, gamification provides extrinsic motivation. Quest2Learn, a school in New York, gamified their entire curriculum by incorporating boss levels, quests, character avatars, and game-like rewards into the classroom.

Alex Hayter Community Manager, Spongelab Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Depends on How You Use It FarmVille can be used to kill time waiting for an activity to start, or it can be used to teach standards-based math, like multiplication.

Linda Ferguson Comment on ISTE’s Facebook page

Learning by Design

Good game design provides a structure where gamers can safely develop their skills in a challenging environment before “leveling up.” Good game design is similar to good learning design because it uses positive and negative feedback to direct a gamer toward a desired goal. This learning strategy is exactly what we want to see in our schools.

Leigh E. Zeitz, PhD Associate Professor, University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

LETTERS

Got My Wheels Turning

I get “caught up” with a lot of reading while I’m on the stationary bike, and last night I read your “Get Ready for Online Assessments” article in Voices Carry (March/April 2012). I think you hit it right on the head, especially on the students needing digital literacy skills and digital learning experiences to get ready for the assessments. Just wanted to let you know—nice job!