Monday, September 21, 2009

Can Video Games Replace "Chalk and Talk" in the Classroom?

I was recently forwarded an article from www.economist.com which details learning programs based entirely on video games. In the Serious Games world we talk a lot about the use of gaming technology in education and business but replacing entire school curriculum with it is, well, it's shocking.

How can we replace traditional "talk and chalk" programs that are facilitated by teachers with video games? Can people truly learn solely by playing games? Aren't we loosing all aspects of human to human socialization through this model? What happens when the students of Bank Street School for Children, for example, enter a non-games based educational environment when they've been schooled solely through games in the past?

I don't have answers to the these questions. Just based on the number of questions that the subject raises and the debate that ensues among parents, gamers, developers, and educators tells me that this model is worth studying.

The technology to learn through gaming is here, and like it or not, it's working its way in to classrooms everywhere in varying doses. Please read the article linked here to learn more about programs that integrate gaming at the most extreme dose.




1 comment:

panda techie said...

I have a belief that video games cannot replace teachers as teachers are human. Humans connect with humans not robots.