Nothing at all to do with games, but thought I’d post it as it is clearly related to the last piece.
There is an apparently significant drop in the reading and writing skills of five year olds in England. BBC article here. I could pontificate about the causes, but I’ll leave that to experts. A significant drop in the number of children that age able to write their own name.
Well, lets be honest, only a small percentage of people really ever learned to write that neatly. My father’s writing, for example, was so un-intelligible that he would have to ask my mother for help in deciphering it. Yet, I still find the news of the death of cursive writing to be thoroughly depressing. Even more depressing, is all the dancing on the grave that followed the news here. Well, not everyone was celebrating but many were. I wonder if they actually took time to read the article? After all it does contain the following information:
Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better — a lifelong benefit.
Thanks to the wife for the links.
p.s. From reading the metafilter comments, it may be the case that US cursive is a more rigidly defined system than the joined-up writing we are taught in the UK. Anyone able to confirm?
With heavy heart, I return to my analysis of the Twitch Speed paper, and begun here and continued here. Originally I thought I’d enjoy this bit, but as I’ve got more involved in the literature, I’ve realised - with help of some of you out there - that I’d much rather just move on. I’ll make this my last post on the seminal paper, and to boot I’ll throw in some comments on “Don’t Bother Me Mom - I’m Learning”. Then I’ll return that book to my colleague. And then I’ll finally move on.
The sections I’ll look at this time are Parallel vs. Linear Processing and Random Access vs. Linear Thinking. At first it seems obvious - parallel processing has to be better than linear: being able to deal with multiple strands at once. And old fashioned liner thinking! Who could possibly want that!
I think Prensky made a clever choice of terms here, so I’m going to change the labels for a start. So question: What do you call linear processing combined with linear thinking?
What happens when you put the online virtual world of Second Life together with traditional Learning Management Systems such as Moodle?
Interested? Read below for more…
There have been a few mentions in some of the previous comments about this paper by Sylvia Martinez from the ACEC conference (and Sylvia herself has left a couple of comments). There are a few minor quibbles I could make - partly on Nintendo’s market which has always focussed on children, and now increasingly away from the traditional game markets. But there are many places where I agree.
For example, that making games to support all areas of the curriculum is not economically viable or worthwhile. The previous post I made here commented on the size of the educational market in Scotland - a small country which has a distinct education system from that of England and Wales.
I really like her opening:
Many educators view school-age students’ attraction to video and computer games with envy. “If only we could harness the power of video games in education…”, some say, with a wistful expression.
From CNN, via the IGDA Game_Edu mailing list, news of another report. In essence, a call for funding for research. Also, it seems, a call to find ways to sell educational games to schools.
Cost is definitely going to be an issue in the increasing adoption of GBL. In Scotland, for example, there is a need for material that is tied to the national curriculum of what is quite a small country. But as educational games will need to be either commercially successful or to receive government funding, it will certainly limit what is be likely to be provided specific to our requirements.
Bill commented earlier with a link to the learningevolves wiki. I’ve registered with wikispaces, and will hopefully contribute to this… when life is a little less frenetic. Maybe a little on Kolb’s Experiential Learning theory…
Another link provided in a comment is titled The Problem with Prensky. I think I’m doomed to contribute something to this…
Via MCV, I read a letter posted by Jacob Habgood - his site has a strangely familiar title to it... gamelearning.net. While he talks a lot about games-based learning, his activity is actually in games-development based learning - and indeed he co-authored the Gamemaker book with Mark Overmars. A recent article by Jacob can be found on gamasutra: Compulsory game development for everyone.
Its looks like quite a nice wee article, but I had to smile at the photo caption on the second page, “I bet he doesn’t look that engrossed in his English lessons”, given the fantastic quote I repeated in the last entry in this blog about students having to be told not to leave recess early to get back to their book-writing!
I’ve been reading How People Learn, in particular starting with Chapter 3 on ‘Learning and Transfer’, as I’m very interested in the question of whether (and how) transfer of knowledge from game based setting to real world occurs. There is a great quote on page 61 about how creating artifacts which are to be shared can be a very motivating experience, using the example of first-grade students asked to create books for others to read:
Feeling that one is contributing something to others appears to be especially motivating…
…teachers had to make a rule: “No leaving recess early to go back to class to work on your book”
This really shows how motivation and engagement don’t rely on technology - but for those who like using technology, it also lends weight to the use of game development in the class room instead of simply games playing.
Pretty busy at the moment. Received some comments which I’ve yet to reply to - including some pretty interesting looking links. Hopefully there’ll be time to check this out tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the current issue of the Metaverse Messenger is quite good for anyone wanting a snapshot view of education in Second Life. Going past the adverts for virtual fashion, gambling and real estate (and noting the cover article on Sun’s press launch in Second Life), you’ll find:
