Key elements for educative games
Posted: September 15th, 2009 | Author: joulimousis | Filed under: Education | 4 Comments »Before reading every bullet please insert (in your mind) this:
“In my opinion…”
1.FUN
A game can be a powerful tool for education as long as it remains fun and compelling.
1.EDUCATION NOT INFORMATION
A game for education must be a door to new knowledge, not a pile of information.
1.HUMAN GUIDANCE
No software can replace the human role in education. A teacher must transmit knowledge along with social and human values.
The natural process of learning through playing is still present in videogames, it just needs to found the proper twist to give depth to that learning.
Yet there is a fundamental stone, still not achieved: in nature, the very gameplay mechanics are the important thing to learn, while any info extra to the core mechanics are gradually less important.
In serious gaming, this is inverted, the side info is the learning target, while the gameplay is a decoration (and in the case its not, the fun factor is lost).
So to comment on your post,
1. Totally agree
2. Totally agree
3. Irrelevant. Learning through playing is not just a human activity, and while there is a learning process, the master is not always needed.
We can teach a lesson with an educational game, but if you think about education as more than learning different subjects then human guidance can´t be left out.
We need to see it beyond software development and it´s inmediate capabilities.
Oh, but I *was* thinking beyond software.
Think of little kittens, for instance. They play between themselves, and learn to hunt, to fight, to run, to ambush… and there is no guidence there, they are just equals.
Although Im not against guidance!
Im more against the *modern concept* of guidence, where the “guide” sits in front of 30-to-n people, throwing his interpretation of certain theory, and later expecting the “guided” to report back to make sure they got it right, given -more or less- the pure arbitrariness of the master.
And is like that even in the most rigid of the hard sciences, the human guidence is corporativized, and the concept of master and aprentices is distorted and corrupted by more “honor” titles that in the middle ages.
Yes, human guidance cant be left out… But sadly, it is.
Novak: you´re assuming that all teachers are bad. I´m aimging at helping teachers to be better, a game can provide a tool for them, a series of symbols to help communicate.
I wouldn´t go and try to change everything with a game, that´s probably why we don´t have so many serious projects in the area.
I think that educative game must support teachers, not replace them.