Total Immersion

The use of video games in teaching is total immersion. Video games are one of the most remarkable uses of information and technology for education. They drop the student into the deep end of the learning environment. I found it difficult to cut the following quote by Max Lieberman:

“One of the more sophisticated arguments for teaching with content-aligned games is that such games present players with an entry route to expertise in a given field through what educational theorists call "epistemic frames" (Shaffer 227-228). These frames are collections of skills, practices, values and identities held in common by "communities of practice" (227). Games can create these epistemic frames by embedding a player in a virtual community of practice, where he or she will learn these ways of seeing by acting as an expert and interacting with other experts, in the form of teachers, other players and "non-player characters" controlled by the software (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson and Gee 9).  These epistemic games spur learning even outside of gameplay, as players share information about game mechanics, game narratives and real-world topics that bear on the problems they are solving within the games.”

So many different standards and goals are met through this use of technology. The fact that students continue to learn after the game is over, is wonderful. As a teacher, I have had students come to me after a lesson or unit and tell me what they found out on their own. At that point, we became an epistemic community. I consider this one of my greater successes in education. Learning more about how to teach with technology, will allow more such successes. Throughout this course, I have become much more interested in the professional development needs of our teachers. The project we completed gives me the experience, albeit just one, to share with other educators. At the end of this course, I am eager to show my colleagues the possibilities with educational technology.

Lieberman, M. “Four Ways to Teach with Video Games”, Currents in Electronic Literacy, University of Texas at Austin, (2010). Retrieved from http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/2010/lieberman_four-ways-to-teach-with-video-games