Complexity in Game World

Complexity Matters
In 2001, Marc Prensky titled his ground-breaking article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” and here he defined the gap that rested between the majority of teachers and the Net Generation students pouring into the university, demanding a more relevant learning environment. I find the dichotomy revealing and thought-provoking.

I heard Prensky speak when the Center for Media & Community held a live webcast event on July 27, 2005 entitled "Kids, Video Games & the Classroom.” One of the key points Prensky made during his presentation was the profound difference between mini-games (the kind with which digital immigrants such as myself are familiar) and complex games which embody the kind of learning environment he maintains we should be crafting for today’s students.

The PowerPoints were difficult to find so I pulled an article by Prensky called “Complexity Matters.” Digital immigrants have a huge blind spot when it comes to how we perceive games – that is, as trivial and having no place in formal education.

The other segment of the “games” industry, and the segment wherein the magic rests, offer complex games. These typically require “tens of hours to concentrated attention to master” and can be described as:

• Creative
• Collaborative
• Challenging
• Competitive

As someone who failed at Myst repeatedly and finally gave up, self-esteem damaged by the attempt, I am intrigued by his defense of these games and his insistence that they must become “a key educational tool for today’s students and for kids in the future.”

Ideas worth engaging.

Fair game?

I participated in a webcast yesterday dealing with kids and gaming and how to incorporate gaming into the classroom. Some thoughts coming out of that webcast:

--Are educational games created to make children WANT to learn, or is learning the "collateral damage" from wanting to game?

--Undoubtedly, the ways in which children learn have changed. What will be the impact of this change in teaching styles? Do we run the risk of creating individuals who can sort through enormous amounts of information and who will lack the ability to explore any subject with depth? Will this modification of teaching styles create the kind of individuals that we would want to create, if we could anticipate the outcome?

Podcasting and habits of mind

Educause recently held an online professional development event with the topic of “Narrowcasting 101: Using Blogs, Podcasts, and Videoblogs in Higher Education.”

Nick Noakes, one of the presenters (and a good friend of mine) made an interesting comment that I’d like to expand with regard to Podcasting itself. He noted that students arrive at the university with “habits of practice” deeply embedded in their daily lives. The ubiquitous cell phone attached to the ear; the telltale tangle of white cables that indicates an iPod concealed somewhere on the person. Instant Messaging might be another example; text-messaging with one’s cell phone.

But he noted also that these habits of practice do not include critical thinking or reflection, two key skills essential to success in the information age (weary cliché). Those of us responsible for educating students or for supporting the faculty who work directly with students in the classroom, both virtual and physical, might do well to take this distinction to heart.

I’m a dedicated listener to podcasts of all kinds. I believe that we can offer instructors strategies with which they can engage their students and shift them from habits of practice to habits of mind which will lead to greatness, or at least a rise above mediocrity.

Podcasting and iTunes

Safari for the Tiger operating system has RSS feeds built into the browser in a seamless way that has greatly facilitated my use of RSS technology. With the recent release of iTunes 4.9, Apple has integrated podcasting into the iTunes interface in a way that makes it almost intuitive to find and subscribe.

My strategy:

1. Preview: I visit Podcast Bunker. The beauty of this site is that you can preview a podcast by hearing 30 seconds of it.
2. Grab a single podcast: If you decide you'd like to listen to the whole podcast, simply drag the RSS-Podcast button into the new podcast area of your iTunes. The program will download that single podcast from that site.
3. Subscribe: if you wish to subscribe so that the podcasts from this site will automatically download into your iTunes, and then onto your iPod, I go to Apple's Podcast Directory, enter the name of the podcast into their search box, let the Apple store locate the podcast and offer me a "subscribe" button.

Is radio coming back? Stay tuned.