Video games will revolutionize education - edutainment

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail435.html

Dr. Moira Gunn interviews Dr. Henry Jenkins and learns how he thinks video games will revolutionize education. Dr. Jenkins is the director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-editor of Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition (Media in Transition).

[runtime: 00:25:05, 11.5 mb, recorded 2005-03-15]

Dr Jenkins states that we see pages of coverage in main stream media about the latest Hollywood movies but not much about the latest video games yet video games are big business. Why is this? He talks about this as being an 'invisible revolution'. (22 minute mark)

In the first 12 minutes or so of the interview the discussion is very focussed on education. In summary

• Games have gone well beyond the drill type games.
• Games have the potential of changing the way the we deliver education so that the teacher, books and the internet become the cheat sheets to complete the game.
• The game is the place to use the acquired knoweldge. If we use Bloom's Taxonomy, the games become the place to apply the knowledge and so encourages higher level thinking.
  
• Games are where people are active and engaged. We know that by doing things we learn things better.
• Different individuals can have different experiences in a game, esp role playing games. Sharing that experience later in a class disucssion can help students see an event from various perspectives.
• Games are not about replacing the teacher. Games are a resource and a teacher is a guide, coach and information provider.
• Students need to play with information just as youth of the past played with the tools of their era.
  

The discussion returns to education at about the 16 minute mark