After finishing A New Culture of Learning, I am beginning to understand what is involved. "We look to gamers because they don't just embrace change, they demand it. Their world is in a state of constant flux, and it must continually be reinvented and reimagined through acts of collective imagination." (Thomas & Brown, 2011) I read more articles by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, and found articles and a TED Talk by Tom Chatfield which helped me think about the nuances of learning in the gaming environment. Chatfield mentions in his article from the Huffington Post, "Can Video Games Alter Society...in a Good Way?":
"When I'm talking to people about why video games matter, I like to quote one of Woody Allen's finest pieces of advice: "Eighty percent of life is showing up." More than almost anything else, showing up matters. You can't find your talent for football if you never touch a ball. You can't make friends if you avoid other people. You can't get the job if you don't apply. You'll never write that screenplay if you don't start typing.
Games are about everyone showing up. In classrooms full of students who range from brilliant to sullen disaffection, it's games -- and often games alone -- that I've seen engage every single person in the room. For some, the right kind of play can spell the difference between becoming part of something, and the lifelong feeling that they're not meant to take part." (Chatfield, 2013)
Instead of coming up with a list of questions and interviewing gamers, I informally talked to them about gaming and watched where the conversation went. One gamer was one of my eight-year-old students who brought in his iPad after school one day (his mom teaches next door). He was showing me Minecraft, which I've heard of but never seen, and walked me through his world. I asked him to show me what it was all about and what he enjoyed about it. It was funny to watch him because in the classroom he tends to not be a risk-taker, but in Minecraft he was. I noticed it immediately. During the conversation he tried out something, but it didn't work. His response to the game (thinking out loud) was, "That didn't work. I'll have to test something else out." The 15 minutes he shared with me playing Minecraft was revealing about this gamer mentality. The games provided a place for him to take risks without the fear of failure and the immediate feedback was powerful.
The other gamer I spoke with was my husband. My older sons have started back into wrestling season so they do not do much gaming this time of the year. My husband plays a role-playing game called Clash of Clans, which my three sons got him "hooked" on this summer. Sometimes I would come in to the living room in the evenings this last summer to see my husband, the two teenagers, and the 4-year-old- all on their iPads-- playing this game, talking together and planning raids. I would just shake my head. Anyways, my husband talked about the coordinating, planning, risk-taking, and sharing that goes on within the game itself. I do find it fascinating and if we (as educators) can figure out a way to tap into these qualities in the classroom it would be a powerful tool.
This reading is opening up a new world to me. I still need some time to process and think about how to tap into and apply the gaming mentality in my classroom.
Brown, J.S., and Douglas Thomas. (April 2006). "You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!" Retrieved from Wired magazine (Issue 14.04) http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html.
Bahny, Wally. (April 7, 2011). "Gamers Make Good Employees". Retrieved from Geekend at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/gamers-make-good-employees/.
Brown, J.S., and Douglas Thomas. (February 14, 2008). "The Gamer Dishttp://blogs.hbr.org/2008/02/the-gamer-disposition/
Chatfield, Tom. (2010) "7 Ways Games Reward the Brain" article & TED Talk. Retrieved at http://tomchatfield.net/2010/07/16/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain/.
Chatfield, Tom. (September 2013) "Can Video Games Alter Society...in a Good Way?" Retrieved at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-chatfield/engaging-the-brain_b_3875040.html.
Nash, Nicole. (September 2009). "Research Indicates Gaming is Good for the Brain". Retrieved at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/research-indicates-gaming-is-good-for-the-brain/3228/