David Black posted on April 28, 2008 11:18
The article looks at gaming and how this activity might help build 21st century skills in our students. One paragraph from this article particularly struck me as insightful:
Studies of the brain have pointed to data suggesting that repeated exposure to video games reinforces the ability to create mental maps, inductive discovery such as formulating hypotheses, and the ability to focus on several things at once and respond faster to unexpected stimuli.
Assuming these results are correct, this certainly enlightens our exploration of the methods and tools necessary to meet the needs of students today. Programs such as Inspiration and FreeMind might be more than nice additions to a software library. They might really be indispensable tools for learning. In addition, in my judgment, we need to be careful not to place a negative value judgment on the ability for today's students to multi-task. Just because many of us cannot do the same thing doesn't make this a skill to be shunned. We should be working to reach out to these students in new ways now that our understanding of how their brain works is growing.
There are several components of video games from which educators call learn. For instance, video games are compelling in part because they meet the qualifications of the user through multiple levels of expertise. They also are excellent in giving immediate feedback concerning success or failure, and they allow students to learn how to improve through their failures. Do we always incorporate these ideas into our lessons, and what would happen to education in our classroom if we did?