Digital Game Building: Learning in a Participatory Culture
Qign Li, Ph.D
Dr Li’s, paper confirmed for me something that I have seen with my own eyes, students like to create stuff. It really does not matter what, posters, diorama, or video games. I know every time I would introduce an assignment to my class where they had to create something they loved it. I remember on assignment in particular where I had students create digital stories. They had to choose an individual they thought had change the world in some way. That was it, I gave them very little direction on what content they had to include. What I got in return was some of the best work my students would do all year. I think when you allow student to be creative to create and think for them selves without getting in the way, like many of us teachers tend to do, they produce exactly what you are looking for; quality work that demonstrates what they know.
Does Days Do it? Children, Games and Learning
Seymour Papert
What a great read, I especially liked the letters at the end. I can’t help but think if Papert had written this article this year, it would have been published on a blog and that conversation would have been at the bottom of the post in the Comments section. The conversation could quite possibly be still going, which is the best part of our participatory culture. I took a few very good ideas about students and learning in general from this article, first it reaffirmed for me the idea that kids do not want learning or school to be easy. Their very motivation behind playing video games is because they are hard. I know when I was teaching I struggled with some content that I had to teach because I thought it was too difficult for most students to grasp. Teaching the concept of worldviews to 12 and 13 year old students is very difficult, but I think that is what I like best about it now. Another idea that Papert talks about is the fact that one of the motivations for gamers is to strive to be the first. The first to get the game, first to play, finish. The first to find or create a cheat. What would this look like in a classroom? Imagine students running into your class so that they could be the first to solve a problem, or the first to solve it in a different way? And just so that they could say “I was the first.” Finally I love the idea of the learner taking control of their own learning. I am sure most of you have had some type of conversation with a former student asking them how they like their new school. I know one of the things they love about it (for me it is their experience in high school) is that there is more choice. They make the decisions (to a point) what they learn and when. Students always love that. I know I do.
Qign Li, Ph.D
Dr Li’s, paper confirmed for me something that I have seen with my own eyes, students like to create stuff. It really does not matter what, posters, diorama, or video games. I know every time I would introduce an assignment to my class where they had to create something they loved it. I remember on assignment in particular where I had students create digital stories. They had to choose an individual they thought had change the world in some way. That was it, I gave them very little direction on what content they had to include. What I got in return was some of the best work my students would do all year. I think when you allow student to be creative to create and think for them selves without getting in the way, like many of us teachers tend to do, they produce exactly what you are looking for; quality work that demonstrates what they know.
Does Days Do it? Children, Games and Learning
Seymour Papert
What a great read, I especially liked the letters at the end. I can’t help but think if Papert had written this article this year, it would have been published on a blog and that conversation would have been at the bottom of the post in the Comments section. The conversation could quite possibly be still going, which is the best part of our participatory culture. I took a few very good ideas about students and learning in general from this article, first it reaffirmed for me the idea that kids do not want learning or school to be easy. Their very motivation behind playing video games is because they are hard. I know when I was teaching I struggled with some content that I had to teach because I thought it was too difficult for most students to grasp. Teaching the concept of worldviews to 12 and 13 year old students is very difficult, but I think that is what I like best about it now. Another idea that Papert talks about is the fact that one of the motivations for gamers is to strive to be the first. The first to get the game, first to play, finish. The first to find or create a cheat. What would this look like in a classroom? Imagine students running into your class so that they could be the first to solve a problem, or the first to solve it in a different way? And just so that they could say “I was the first.” Finally I love the idea of the learner taking control of their own learning. I am sure most of you have had some type of conversation with a former student asking them how they like their new school. I know one of the things they love about it (for me it is their experience in high school) is that there is more choice. They make the decisions (to a point) what they learn and when. Students always love that. I know I do.
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