Article Summary Of:

Squire, K. (2005). Changing The Game: What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom? Innovate 1 (6), 2005 - academiccolab.org http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/Changing%20The%20Game-final_2.pdf

Primary Topic(s) Addressed:  Games in the Classroom / Educational Pedagogies

Secondary Topic(s) Addressed: 

How this might be used on my dissertation:

Great paper discussing pedagogies:  standard vs. gaming.  A 'must-cite' when discussing traditional models of learning in comparison with gaming.

Paper says that a precursor to educational gaming is changing the educational culture / pedagogy in today's schools.

 

Questions Raised (potential topic for me):

This paper is aimed at changing current educational pedagogies.  This paper raised the question of how we might go about changing the culture / environment found in today's schools towards a model that supports different forms of learning.  Not all learners excel in today's 'factory' model of standardized learners- some are more hands on (tinkering type) that might prefer the learning afforded by playing an educational game.  The obvious question raised is:

 "How might we go about changing the pedagogy / culture in today's schools?"

Summary of Paper:

No one model of learning suits EVERYONE (Psychology:  all the different learner types)
- tinker-ers / hands-on learners often fail in today's schools

Many students are more comfortable learning in a MMOG
- can hide behind an avatar
- can play the same game using different characters / roles, learn from different perspectives

Current learning models / cultures in schools favor SOCIAL CONTROL and STANDARDIZED LEARNING

Two learning models are presented:

Gaming Model: - better for 'new' economy - problem-based learning - hands-on - yields creative thinkers (often these are the bad students in the 'factory' model

Traditional / 'Factory' Model: - best for getting thru today's higher-educational system - structured tasks - hands-off - produces standardized learners

Terms / Definitions defined:

1. 'new' economy:  the economy of the future, assuming progression of technology, where today's learners might be best prepared using an alternative to the 'factory' model used in today's schools
2. 'Factory Model':  model of learning employed by most of today's schools, where there is a value on standardized learning (tests, homework, etc).  In the real world, we can learn from failures, but are punished / penalized in this model of learning.

Good Quotes:

see paper (circled)

"The real challenge is not so much in bringing games, or any technology into our schools, but rather changing the cultures of our schools to be organized around learning, rather than the current form of social control." (p. 6)

"Yet, as challenging as it is to design a good educational game, it may be more challenging to design a good educational system for an educational games to flourish in. ... it is not certain that such a [well designed] game could even survive in today's educational environment as our contemporary educational systems do not know how to sustain a curricular innovation built on the properties that make games compelling." (p. 6)