"An article about video games and learning, published in the New York Times Magazine, has been garnering lots of attention this week. The article profiles a number of advocates for games for education and several programs, notably Quest to Learn, the nation's first public school based on the principles of game design, in New York City. (Source: New York Times Video)" From Edutopia 9/17/2010
For a short video on this school see http://www.edutopia.org/educational-video-picks
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Nation's First Public School Based on Game Design
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My first impression when I see a school based on game design is to revert to my younger days and imagine how cool it would be to go to a school where you not only play, but also make video games. The idea seems too good to be true. This reawakens my adult thought processes, which lead to my thought processes as an educator, which require some kind of educational results before believing that this would be more than a glorified after school hangout that happens during school as well. There does seem to be some evidence that this model may be effective, though.
One thing that seems certain through watching the video and reading the related article is that the students are definitely engaged in the tasks. I think this would be a foregone conclusion when comparing games to “traditional” school tasks. What is still to be determined, at least in this particular case, is if the increased cost of advanced technology gives proportional gains in learning. The article stated that these students scored similarly to other students in the district on standardized tests, but these do not measure some of the main things game based learning is supposed to emphasize, such as problem solving, cooperation, teamwork and creativity. As someone who played a lot of video games as a kid and who still plays some, I’d be very interested to see if this model can either be shown to bring gains in the almighty standardized tests, or if assessments can be made to measure any possible gains in the other skills that would make a case for this as a more widespread educational method.
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