To play or to learn? Why not do both?

 This week's posting is about a book called What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee, who is distinguished in many areas including linguistics. He has taught courses  from psychology and linguistics to video games and education. Obviously, I will not go through each part the book, but give a summary of what it is about. If it inspires you in anyway, then by all means please read the book.

  Gee begins by telling the reader what he means when he says learning and literacy. He says students (from elementary school to college) when learning in the classroom are not truly reading because they do not understand the background of what they are reading truly is. He gives the simple example of the sentence: the guard dribbled down the court and passed the ball. If a student does not actually know what basketball is then how can he or she truly grasp the context of this sentence. The student has the ability to say what happened to the ball like was it dribbled or bounced, but the student will never actually visualize what the sentence was portraying nor will the student reflect on the topic and apply it elsewhere. Of course, this example is extremely simple in order to make one understand, but now put physics in place of basketball and you may get the bigger picture. I've recently discussed with some of my peers of how many college students have had trouble with college level reading due students' lack of reflecting over what they have read. Gee says students would be better engaged if they would build ideas on the topic before hand when they read a text book or even watch a movie. Do you think educators should stress more attention to making student's think about what is being studied or is it better how it is by simply teaching the material?

  By now you've probably said something along the lines of "what could this possibly have to do with video games?" Well if you have not, then congratulations. I on the other hand did while reading this book. But what James did was pretty interesting. He would talk about education or build up a point or theme he wanted to make. He then would relate it to video games and how good games can teach the certain points he was trying to make. Each chapter talks about a different way of thinking, mainly for educational purposes, and then ties it in with how video games can help teach that. If you have ever played a video game, think about it for a minute, and then ask yourself what you could have learned from that game or what kind of obstacles did it throw at you in which it forced you to truly think in order to leave the game victorious. In a way, couldn't this be similar to how someone has their view changed or how someone reflects because of a book or a movie?

  An example I will give about how the book fuses ideas for education and video games relates to the second chapter. The chapter made readers ponder questions about how our identities influence the way we learn. Identities,such as someone who is not intrinsically motivated, shape the way we choose to learn. If young students a get mind set that scientists take risks or that they never give up, it may change the way they study or pay attention in class. How does a video game teach having an identity? The game would be a role-playing game where one gets to choose the story, character, and choices made throughout the game. If you have ever played role playing game, haven't you made decisions based on what you think you're character should be? It's similar when applying this to real life saying students should make choices of how they will go about understanding a subject and teachers and professors should be the ones guiding them.

   There is a grand amount of ideas and principles in this book that are quite fascinating, but unfortunately I can not discuss every single one with you. Click on this website to see the Gee's 36 principles of learning to read more, and to read more about James Paul Gee click here. If you do read the book it does include even more ideas and more fundamentals to understanding education, and  bonds  them with video games well.

  I did also later discover that there is a second, more refined edition than the one I have been reading and looking through, but the main ideas should be the same.

Let's keep playing!


Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.