Is Michael Gove really embracing game-based learning?

An interesting article on the Guardian games blog a couple of days ago. I won’t go into too much of a rant here because basically the article itself says it all. But suffice to say that I also find Gove’s notion that “when children need to solve equations in order to get more ammo to shoot the aliens, it is amazing how quickly they can learn”, and his underpinning assumptions about learning, extrinsic motivation and ‘students as game consumers’, somewhat troubling.

The cynic in me also wonders what Gove’s political motivations might be for jumping (albeit with both legs tied together) on the game-based learning bandwagon.

For anyone really keen, you can see the full speech here.

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