It’s quite a busy week this week so I haven’t had time to explore any of the following links in detail, but thought I would get them down in one place before they disappear into the ether (i.e. the section of my bookmarks list that goes off the end of the page).
First, a couple of different takes on a game-based learning institution. Quest to Learn is a school based around gaming principles, which describes itself as “a school that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences.” In contrast, the WILL Campus online learning environment provides access to “socially responsible interactive video games” (although from the demo it looks like these are really video-supported decision trees with fairly limited interactivity).
I’ve also recently come across this report from Learning and Teaching Scotland on the use of the Mangahigh maths game in Scottish schools. The research shows that greater use of the game (i.e. greater maths practice) leads to better results. Says more about the importance of control groups to me than about the value of Mangahigh.
Finally, I’m glad that Alan Titchmarsh has taken the time to add his considered and well-researched opinions to the video games and violence debate. Don’t know about video games, but I’m sure that listening to too many ill-informed media pundits could be proven to lead to violence.
Followed your tweet to here, and think the rant well-deserved. You may be right about the origins of violence. When I used to teach media studies I saw the effect on my students of one piece of ill-informed media punditry. A normally calm and placid group were so wound up by one person they were shouting and kicking chairs after only a couple of minutes. The cause of the violence … Mary Whitehouse.
Unfortunately you even hear this sort of debate in academic circles, e.g. the bizarre ramblings of Greenfield on games.