Hi guys. Interesting paradigm-changing case studies of video game use in elementary classrooms + curricula & how today's tech-savvy children are different. (NY Times free registration required)
Learning by Playing: Video Games Win a Beachhead in the Classroom http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html I don't agree with some of the things in the article (horrific stuff such as doing away with handwriting and spelling), but there there are many interesting tidbits in there such as “failure-based learning”: Quote: "children who persist in playing a game are demonstrating a valuable educational ideal. “They play for five minutes and they lose,” he says. “They play for 10 minutes and they lose. They’ll go back and do it a hundred times. They’ll fail until they win.” He adds: “Failure in an academic environment is depressing. Failure in a video game is pleasant. It’s completely aspirational.” ----- On the subject of handwriting, I think the rise of tablets & touchscreens may bring a new revival of penmanship (at least with block print). The increasing non-standardization of keyboards due to the plethora of computer & device form factors is actually destroying touch-typing & making it obsolete. (IMHO, mobile is the future of computing) Don't you guys find the system of emphasizing fast typing on a layout purposely made to slow down typing absurd? (QWERTY). The wonderful thing a virtual keyboard provides is the ability to re-map/reskin keyboards. I wonder how fast kids would be able to type if it became ABCD instead of QWERTY? (I miss the Texas Instrument Speak & Spell) -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_%26_Spell_(toy) Oddly enough, I text faster on a traditional cellphone keypad (which is technically ABCD) than on a Blackberry-style qwerty phone keypad due to muscle memory & layout confusion. ---- Anyway, I've come across astounding "kids + computers" stuff over here myself. While walking around the talipapa market in a visit to Boracay island here in the Philippines last month, I saw a tiny 6-year old local playing Counter-Strike deathmatch ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-strike ) and holding his own against his older friends (ranging from 8-11 year olds) in a small internet cafe. I'll upload the video to youtube once I find my phone data cable. A couple of years ago, I also saw three 8-year old street kids pool together money to play Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_Red_Alert_3 ) taking turns hot-seat style at a cheap internet cafe Cue gasps of horror aside on videogame violence, I mean wow. At 8 years old, I could barely grasp running and jumping at the same time with Super Mario Brothers. Just goes to show how flexible kids are on computers and how they can easily get around supposedly "complex" interfaces. -- carlos nazareno http://twitter.com/object404 http://www.object404.com -- core team member phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters http://www.phlashers.com -- poverty is violence _______________________________________________ OLPC-Philippines mailing list OLPC-Philippines@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-philippines