Let's Play a Game!

Gaming in education is getting a lot of attention at ed tech conferences and in the instructional technology literature. Because I've never been a gamer, I haven't really paid much attention. However, last week, Matt Tucker, English teacher at the high school sent me a link to the video you'll see below. A student had shared it with him because they were reading Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind in class. It's definitely worth nine minutes of your time, and it offers up plenty for us to think about, regardless of how you feel about video games.

Update 11/7/2011: Video was removed from original hosting sight over the summer, but you can find it here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamifying-education

So this week, after watching the video, tell us what you think. What idea was most compelling or challenging for you? Why? Can you imagine incorporating gaming concepts and/or gaming in your classroom? Bonus points if you try the Wikipedia/linking exercise described at the end of the video with your students. (By the way, I "played" it myself with two random topics and I think the main learning goals of doing such an activity with students are really rooted in the Habits of Mind and/or Thinking Skills. It's not like kids are going to learn tons of stuff about your content area (although, they may learn some), rather, they get to see/think about how information is linked, practice skills like predicting and inferring, decision-making, metacognition, etc.)