H Duderstadt, New Tech Maven

This is a very interesting column

There’s been a lot of press lately on the school in Rhode Island that fired it’s entire teaching staff.  Even the president stepped in and agreed with the move.   But, I personally believe that though there may be a few teachers that could do a better job, the solution to the education crisis in the US involves everybody from politicians who will honestly back education and not just use it to help get them re-elected to office then cut, cut, cut when they need to balance the budget; or administrators who are educators and not polticians; or voters who will support a school bond even though they don’t have any children; or media producers who are willing to explore adding learning content to their product because it can make them more entertaining if done right.

But no one key component of the process of raising children is so important as the parent. They are key to the future of their children.  Yet, all too often they are struggling to keep up with their kids and their kids “tech”.

Take a look at a typical teenager today and you’ll find a walking advertisement for best buy.   Armed with iPods, iPhones, laptops, all jacked in to networks that give them access to twitter, facebook, texting, phone messaging, World of Warcraft, Second Life, Wikipedia and the vast array of content that is the internet they are easily the most connected generation in history.  At home, many have Xbox 360s, PS3s, Wiis, and any rang of sophisticated game platforms, often hooked up to high def TVs.  Even their conversations can be a blend of texting shortcuts, typical teen slang, and rap tunes.

So, it’s little wonder that those who grew up in the shadow of one media type, whether it be television or radio, or even first generation Mac’s sometimes have a difficult time really understanding these “Digital Natives’ as they come to be known.  And not the least mystified is often their parents.

Though a parent might be a definite blackberry addict (often called “crackberry”), have a facebook account, and actually be at level 70 on World of Warcraft, they must realize these kids are on a whole different level.  A key goal of this site is to attempt to help decode the world modern children live in and help parents better understand and so play an active role in their children’s growth and learning.  Especially now with the severe budget cuts that school districts all over the US are facing, the importance of parents being involved in supporting their children and their learning can not be underemphasized.

So hang on, as I set out to help you 20th century raise 21st century kids1

Have you ever wondered about the way you learn things.  When I was studying education for my MS, I was introduced to amazing test called the VARK test.  It’s a series of multiple choice questions like:

Kids in school love to complain about how boring so many subjects they have to study are.  “Why do I have to learn Trigonometry anyway???  It’s so BOOOORING!”   Or, “our physics teacher was going on and on about gravity and I just don’t get it.”

Yet, ask them about the latest video game they are playing and their whole mood will change as they start going on and on about how many zombies they were able to kill in Left 4 Dead, or how they built this amazing house in Sims 3 and wished they could really live there.   The two might appear to have nothing in common but you’d be suprised.

Take a look at the typical video game boys in particular like to play and you’ll find a real world complete with many of the same  properties a real world has, INCLUDING GRAVITY.  In fact, there is a game known as Garry’s Mod which is called a “physics sandbox”.  It’s basically an environment where the laws of physic exist and you can create things that are influence by this.  A walking house; a tank you can drive around, an whole army that you can control, even electrical circuits that control specific machines.  Imagine a virtual place where children can build anything they can imagine and then operate it as if it’s in the real world.  The potential of this program in an educational environment is immense.

The possibilities go on and on.  If this is something that excites you, the best place to start is read James Paul Gee’s work “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Second Edition: Revised and Updated Edition“

One of the things that we always hear about is how awful video games are.  We are reminded how the kids responsible for the Columbine massacre were avid video game players, video game addiction is spoken of grimly by noted child psychologists on network television, and on and on.

Now, I’m more than willing to admit that children can spend too much time playing games.  But, to say that video games are inherently “evil” is just not true.  In fact, there are many respected educators who feel video games are a key component of the future of learning.

Every year I attend a conference sponsored by the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin in Madison called the GLS Conference, for Games, Learning & Society (http://www.glsconference.org/2009/).  This event brings together teachers, professors, and game designers from all over the world who are doing very real and very exciting research into just how games can be integrated into learning.  And, I’m not just speaking of “educational games”, but main stream popular games.

I’m not going to delve deeply into this area, because it’s already been covered so well by many of the guest speakers at GLS .   Keep your eyes open for a new book coming out  by Deborah Todd, an experienced game designer, that promises to be an excellent insight into this.

Instead, in one key part of this blog, I want to focus less on existing games and how to use them in education, and more on how to make them and how very powerful tools to do this are bundled with many of the most popular games today including Civilization IV, Warcraft III, Grand Theft Auto 4, Unreal Tournament, Crysis, Fallout 3, World in Conflict, the Sims, Quake IV, and many of the games offered through the Steam system to mention only a few.

Beyond learning obvious skills such as design, computer programming, and 3D modeling, video game design also can also be a very powerful path to understanding less apparent subjects such as Math, Physics, Engineering, Architecture, Creative Writing, Drama, Music, Film-making, Business, and even Classics and Languages.  I’ll attempt to reveal these in articles as I progress through this part of the blog.

As a high school game design teacher, I know that many of my students probably won’t pursue careers as video game designers or programmers, but I also seek to use the subject as a means to make other subjects more relevant and interesting.  In the course of this blog, I hope to help you see this as well and discover how you can also use making video games as a powerful way to inspire and in develop interest and the tools you can provide to help.Video