EdGamer
EdGamer is
a podcast by two teachers who talk about how games – board, video, and
otherwise – are used in schools. In
episode 101, they had the pleasure of having James Gee (the Gee-nius) talk with
them about his latest book and about how we need to find ways to make smarter
students. Gee brought up the importance
of intelligence in our uncertain future.
With big problems like global warming, alternative fuels, and a dropping
economy, the world of our students will require them to be creative and capable
of intelligently responding to information and their surroundings.
There was a
really cool segment about how we can engage problems with out students. Since many teachers are not up on the latest
technology and troubleshooting, there will always be issues that will take time
and expertise to solve. They brought up
an issue with students trying to play minecraft on the school server. They had to find a way for the kids to build
their stuff without having kids from outside the servers coming in and
destroying their work. Rather than
banning people, the kids found a way around the problem and solved it on their
own. This is the kind of intelligence
and ingenuity that we’re hoping to enable in our students. This kind of thing isn’t done by having us
always solve the problems either. I know
I’ve learned more than a few things about computers after having to figure out
a few workarounds on my own. And it’s so
much more rewarding.
If you want
to hear about some opinions about how games work with school, give it a
listen. It’s more of a news format, but
the discussions with the interviewees are really engaging.
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