Week 4: Reflection
This week in class, we watched Jane McGonigal's TED talk on gaming and discussed surveys and formative assessment.
I really enjoyed watching the TED talk, and the points McGonigal made were definitely interesting, but I think it would take a major game developer to get on board with her scheme to really make a big difference through gaming. I imagine a cross between Oregon Trail and Mad Max or the zombie apocalypse might catch on in the wider world and be able to impart some of the transferable skills she was talking about, but I don't imagine the scale she was working with was making that much of a difference. It was definitely thought-provoking, though, to take an activity like gaming and frame it in a different way.
We discussed surveys, including question formats, possible pitfalls, length, and tools for online surveys. We also discussed formative assessments, focusing mostly on strategies to utilize in a library setting.
Week 5: Learning and Transfer
How do we identify and promote information transfer?
The question of how to identify information transfer seems complicated. According to the readings, the evaluation of effective transfer is the speed at which learners apply previously learned skills to new situations. First, we'd have to identify the skills that we're measuring, then ask learners to implement them in a new context, and finally evaluate the efficiency of that ongoing process.
As far as the promotion of information transfer, the readings stress the importance of learners making meaning and thinking abstractly about knowledge. We must take into account and build upon prior knowledge, and remember that transfer is "an active, dynamic process." Allowing for ample time to build understanding during the initial learning process, emphasizing understanding rather than memorization, contextualizing knowledge, and both giving feedback and encouraging self-monitoring habits in learners are all important pieces of the puzzle of promoting transferable knowledge.
The thing about McGonigal's ideas, as least the way I interpret them is that she's not exclusively talking about designing educational games. So I don't believe you would need a game developer or even an actual video game in order to implement her ideas.
ReplyDeleteReally what I believe McGonigal is pushing for is for us to "design reality" to be more game-like. An example of this could be websites developed recently where people track their exercise habits and "level up" and face challenges. Another library-related example would the summer reading game at the AADL. These are things I think are achievable without major support from those actually in the game industry.
Maybe we should focus on which skills are best taught through video games if we are focusing on the world of educational games. I think Social Studies can be taught well because so much of the hard part for students is visualizing what the past looks like. This doesn't address McGonigal's greater goal of creating powerful citizens through gaming, but it could serve strictly educational purposes.
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