My friend, George Mayo, does amazing video work with his students. This spring, he asked if some of his students could interview me and one of my own students for a piece they were doing around video games and education. So, we hooked up on Skype one day, and his reporters chatted us up about our own video game project. The other week, they finally published the piece, and it is pretty neat (although Skype delayed our voices.) Check it out (and check out the other great videos that George’s kids did, too, at their Watch Out! site).
Video Games: Friends or Enemies from mrmayo on Vimeo.
Our work around video games can be viewed at our site: Gaming4School.
Peace (in the movie),
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I just came across this blog, and definitely think that, done correctly, video games can be used effectively as a teaching tool. I was wondering what your thoughts might be regarding the increasingly mainstream gamification of education? Specifically, what do you think would appeal most to kids; smaller mini-games that they might develop themselves (as evidenced in this great video), or games developed by professionals?
One example of an game that is being adapted for education is Portal, which will begin being used in the classroom to teach math and physics in the near future (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406222,00.asp).
Thanks for your work in the field,
Albert
Hi
Thanks for stopping by, Albert.
I am always going to come out in favor of games created by students, but with learning and critical thinking skills at the center. If our intent to teach students about how to be creative composers with digital media, then we need to put the tools in their hands. That said, I think games like Portal and Mindcraft might have some interesting possibilities for the classroom.
Kevin