Vol. 2. No.1“Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in 3-D Virtual Worlds”

April 2009

 I chose this article because I thought the title indicated it could be applicable in the classroom and it also reviewed the 21^st century skills.  Points were made in the web 2.0 book about ideas in video games that make them so attractive to gamers.  If we can adapt those ideas in the classroom, it could lead to much more learning.

 The experimental question is that we need to change the perception that learning has to be serious and boring.  The editor emphasizes that 21^st century skills need to be passionate and persistent which is defined as grit, there should be playfulness in learning that leads to innovation, groups should be smarter than the smartest person in the group, and real  understanding that leads to problem solving; not just teaching a test.  The methods used for this paper were observation and analysis of video games and gamers playing them.

Video games are excellent models just like models in Science. Video games teach the gamer what works and what doesn’t simply by experimenting.  In modding within games, players can theorize about what model will work.  Games are systems of interacting rules and players see them from a certain perspective and sometimes many different perspectives which creates much better learning.  Gaming also has the social feature of playing in groups, watching each other, and multi player games.  This could be looked at as a team project and pooling resources to learn and do more within the game.  The final analysis indicates that we need to switch to a new mode for schools: everyone must find a passion and learn to persist in it to mastery—and then they need to learn to teach and share their passion with others and work with people who have other passions to solve problems that can’t be solved by one passion alone!

 Video game concepts could be incorporated into most any lesson.  Finance and accounting would be the easiest areas to use simulation type games to monitor stocks, create financial reports for a business, or creating real life budget type plans.

 Using the modeling concept from video games could transfer to most any area using research and development, learning a new procedure, or simulating a new product.

 Research in understanding how video games have become so widespread and loved among all cultures, genders, and ages is valuable when it can then be applied to more critical learning and understanding in the classroom content.

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