I don’t know how long ago I found this link, but I found these links a while ago and together they suggest that gaming is something that even if it’s not done in the classroom, informs many real life skills for students. If this sounds familiar, it should, it’s by James Paul Gee. The second is about moderation directly, State of Play talks about how a balance is what is needed. I don’t know why this isn’t obvious to more people. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing (it’s that what the story of Midas is all about – I was thinking GoldMember first, as well as too much exercise and too much of an easy life?) and that includes gaming.
Even in supporting gaming in the classroom and in other instructional settings, there is something here as well. The extreme supporters are not going to get their point across any better by being on the ends, the real meat of the conversation is in the middle. If you understand that there are limitations and moderate your views, I think you’ll be more successful in gaining converts. I don’t know if it’ll work for the nay sayers, largely because I’m not going to try – but I will say when gaming might not be appropriate.
One nice thing about my new place in Science is that there is a tonne of game research here (yes, a metric tonne 😉 )
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