Double Entry Journal #12

 

Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming     1 What is the main argument the author is making in Chapter 5?   The main argument Gee makes in Chapter five is that many video games are full of learning principals that if applied to school curriculum, could greatly improve learning in schools.     2. What constitutes a theory of learning?   According to Gee, a theory of learning is made up of principals and patterns of how we learn. (Gee, 59)   3. Why did the author struggle to learn to play Warcraft III? What needs to proceed before good learning principles?   The author struggled with Warcraft III because he found it “too hard”, meaning that he failed to engage with the game in a way that made use of its good design and learning principles. Before good learning principles can be fully realized, the learner must have motivation for an extended engagement with the game. There has to bee commitment before deep learning of a complex domain can occur. (Gee, 59, 60)   4. How would have the authors struggle with learning to play Warcraft III been interpreted in school?   If Warcraft III had been a school subject, his struggle to learn to play the game would have been viewed as a failure, and he would have received a failing grade. (Gee, 60)   5 What kind of learning experience might be better suited for at risk students?   Rather than “vertical” learning, in which the learner makes much progress moving from low skills to high skills in an area, “horizontal” learning, in which learners do not seem to make much progress, but spend a lot of time mastering the first skills of an area, may be most important for students who are “at risk”. (Gee, 60)   6. Why does the school-based interpretation of "at risk" lead to bad learning?   The typical school’s view of “at risk” often leads them to give learners with this label “dumbed-down curriculum that is based in bad learning experiences for the students, causing them to give up. (Gee, 60)   7. What do schools need to do to function more like a good game?   To function more like a good game, schools need to provide students the powerful motivation for extended engagement that games provide by treating content areas as domains with special worlds of their own, giving students the opportunity to take on identities that allow them to see and think about themselves in new ways, connecting knowledge with action and identity (Gee, 61)   8. What is different about how good games and school assess learners?   Games such as RoN allow learners to assess themselves, what they already know and don’t know, and decide which learning style suits them best, while schools tend to assess the learner and make the decision for the learner how to address these choices (Gee, 61).   9. What are the attributes of a  fish-tank tutorial that make it an effective learning tool? How is it different than school-based learning?   A fish-tank tutorial is an effective learning tool because it gives information multimodally, including print, orally, and visually; uses a lot of repetition; information clearly interconnected, and is given “just in time” so the learner can see its meaning in terms of effects and action. In school, however, students often get too much verbal information up front and are expected to remember it for the undetermined time in the future when they will actually use it. (65,66)   10. What is a sand-box tutorial? Why is effective? How is it different that school-based learning?   A sand-box tutorial is a space in which the game player is protected and is free t explore and make new discoveries about the game before they actually start playing. This type of tutorial is effective because it alerts players to that fact that they need to assess their own progress, desires, and learning styles. It also encourages them to make proactive decisions, take control of their own learning, builds confidence, School based learning often does not give students the chance to take control and make decisions about their learning, and can quickly destroy confidence if students are not immediately successful. (66-69)     11. What is a genre? Why is it important for good learning?     Genre is the type or category a given thing falls into. For example, a book’s genre could be mystery, romance, or science fiction. Genre is important to good learning because different types of reading and writing operate by different principles, and it is vital to know early and well what type of thing we are asked to learn or do. (Gee, 69)   12. According to the author, what to learning and play having in common?   Learning and play both give people a sense of joy and pleasure at meeting challenges. (Gee, 71)   13. How are the skills tests in good games different from skills tests in school?     The skills tests of good games allow players of assess how well their skills are integrated with each other and with the game system. They are developmental for the learner rather than evaluative, and they test skills for their value in strategies, rather than testing skills outside of contexts of application as tests in schools often do. (Gee, 73)   14. How does RoN support collaborative learning?     RoN supports collaborative learning by bringing together a host of people with a common interest (the game) to share and disperse knowledge through websites, chartrooms, and publications regardless of race class, culture, ethnicity, or gender. (Gee, 73)   15. Match at least one learning principle of good games (on page 74) with each the following learning theorists you have studied in 3352:   Dewey- (inquiry and problem-based learning) 3. “They create and honor horizontal learning experiences, not just vertical ones.”   Vygotsky-  (scaffolding, zone of proximal development) 12. “They offer supervised (i.e. guided) fish tank tutorials (simplified versions of the real system)   Piaget (assimilation and accommodation) 22. “They allow learners to practice enough so that they routinize their skills and then challenge them with new problems that force them to re-think these taken for grated skills and integrate them with new ones. Repeat.”   Gardner- (theory of multiple intelligences) 14. “ They give information via several different nodes (e.g. in print, orally, visually) They create redundancy   Bandura- (social-cognitive theory) 16. “ Learning should be a collaborative dance between the teacher’s (designer’s) guidance and the learner’s actions and interpretations.”   Skinner- (reinforcement in Behaviorism) 1. “They create motivation for an extended engagement”

 

source

 

Gee, P. (2004). Situated language and learning a critque of traditional schooling.