Let's encourage students to spend 21 billion hours reading. This seems like a better idea than encouraging students to spend 21 billion hours playing video games. So I'm old-fashioned and reactionary. I'm also right. There are valuable skills to be gained from reading, particularly for students under the age of 21. Instead of 10,000 hours playing video games, let's make students into reading virtuosos. Reading is important because it allows humans to better participate in enlightened societies. By developing reading and writing skills, students can better represent themselves and their interests in a global marketplace and economy. Student who read successfully have a better time finding meaningful and lasting relationships and communicating their ideas.
Mcgonigal does well to quote Malcolm Gladwell, although an article he wrote for the New Yorker offers better insight into the question of team dynamics and individual success. Gladwell explains that two heads are not necessarily
better than one, and thousands of heads are definitely not better than
one. Instead, we should be providing students with an"environment quiet enough to allow them to think."Although we want students to work cooperatively with others, we should not wholeheartedly embrace this strategy in place of proven successful strategies.
Most importantly, I don't think the Ted talk we watched took into account the discrete boundaries between our reality and alternate realities. In the latter, the trust of which Mcgonigal speaks so highly exists between gamers only because there are no repercussions. When internet users take trust too far and try to combine internet realities with the real world there can and often are financial, pecuniary and emotional consequences. MSNBC's To Catch a Predator, and many of us who are old enough to have received emails from Nigerian royalty should certainly remember the consequences of forming cyber relationships. The opportunities for psychic exploration that exist in the creation of non-reality allows users a freedom that exists only because of its distance from actual reality. The freedom is in leaving cares and worries (and homework) behind us. In the real world we would not implicitly trust others with matters of national security, economics or politics. Sending a money order to Lagos is one thing, sending nuclear launch codes is quite another.
Felix, I love this idea of giving students a quiet environment to think. For some students, working collaboratively with others is not best suited to their learning. I think this in an especially important consideration when we introduce technology into the classroom. For many students, this is a high risk activity; thus, we should be mindful of different learning strategies.
ReplyDeleteKatie,
DeleteThank you for your kind comments. I agree that introducing technology without lots of consideration is a high-risk activity. Your comment also made me think of the gender politics of a classroom. Teamwork in the context of video games often devolves into competition. While this motivates many students, I fear other students that do not thrive with competition will not effectively learn given material and might shut themselves off altogether from the learning process.
I agree with your point about "trust" in video games existing because there are no repercussions. One of the things I was skeptical about in McGonigal's talk was her assertion that gamers are experts at navigating a "social fabric". Social skills in the real world and social skills in the virtual world are two entirely different things.
ReplyDeleteI think that you point about keeping students in reality rather than encouraging them live in an alternate universe, is quite valid. Do you think there are any ways in which living in an alternate universe could help students learn how to live and interact in reality/our universe, better and more proficiently? You emphasized a quiet environment. What do you think about individual thought and opinion? Do you think that students who spend most of their time gaming, or in loud busy environments may not be able to communicate themselves as throughly or thoughtfully as students who may spend more time within their own heads/dwelling on their own thoughts rather than other's?
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should have students to do more reading and encourage this over encouraging video games. I ahd not previously thought about how forming online relationships can be harmful to students. You have reminded me of the movie Surrogates starring Bruce Willis. If you haven't seen it then it is instead of forming human interactions and connections the people all use these robots that they are able to control with their minds. Essentially, I can see who people may be easily lost in the gamer reality and lose touch with real reality. In this sense, it would be difficult for teenagers to grow into fully functioning and social beingings. Eventually, people would not be able to communicate with eachother on personal and real level when not in the game.
ReplyDelete