What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy 
asked by ragtop on November 10, 2006 3:14 AM
One of America's most well-respected professors of education looks at the good that can come from playing video games-even violent ones. James Paul Gee is interested in the cognitive development that can occur when someone is trying to escape a maze, find a hidden treasure and, even, blast away an enemy with a high-powered rifle. Talking about his own video-gaming experience learning and using games as diverse as Lara Croft and Arcanum, Gee looks at major specific cognitive activities, from how individuals develop a sense of identity, to how one grasps meaning, picks a role model, or perceives the world. This is a ground-breaking book that takes up a new electronic method of education and shows the positive application it has for learning.
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James Paul Gee, a pre-eminant researcher into video games and their relationship to education and learning, offers a clear and insightful discussion as to the educational potential of video games. His opening statement that he will even look for the positives in violent video games, lays the groundwork for his enthusiastic praise of these textual forms. His discussion of identity, community and the social nature of knowledge, opens up a wide variety of connections with other theories and approaches that see learning and literacy as intimately linked to human social experience. The nature of video games as cultural texts is what enables them to be such rich resources for learning. Drawn from his own experiences and those of many young people, this critical engagement with the debates surrounding video games, is essential reading for anyone reading or researching in areas of educational innovation.
reviewed by artdealer on November 18, 2006 11:11 PM
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This a remarkably approachable book despite being written by an academic. Mr. Gee does an excellent job of exploring the role of video games in the lives of contemporary people. He explains succinctly how learning principles from video games can be applied to learning.
I particularly appreciated his discourse on literacy and explanation of semiotic domains and where video games falls into these domains. Certainly this book provided me many ideas on aspecting and identity and how mutable these concepts are for people, particularly through an interactive medium such as video games.
Still he seems to only apply these learning skills to hard sciences, which reveals a tendency of soft science academics trying to find validity by likening their work to hard science. The fact is soft science academia and the humanities is not and never will be hard science...while applying some of the examples to hard science is necessary it'd be nice to see how these principles apply to the humanities and soft sciences.
four out of five stars
I particularly appreciated his discourse on literacy and explanation of semiotic domains and where video games falls into these domains. Certainly this book provided me many ideas on aspecting and identity and how mutable these concepts are for people, particularly through an interactive medium such as video games.
Still he seems to only apply these learning skills to hard sciences, which reveals a tendency of soft science academics trying to find validity by likening their work to hard science. The fact is soft science academia and the humanities is not and never will be hard science...while applying some of the examples to hard science is necessary it'd be nice to see how these principles apply to the humanities and soft sciences.
four out of five stars
reviewed by shirley49 on November 21, 2006 10:41 PM
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I think this is the best book till now in this specific game culture subjetc. There is no recipe in here, but there are lots of ingredients for game designers and educators can understand about this specific top.
The author have gaming experience, what is very important in writing about this, and a good theorical approach.
If you are a game designer, educator or researcher, this book is a must.
The author have gaming experience, what is very important in writing about this, and a good theorical approach.
If you are a game designer, educator or researcher, this book is a must.
reviewed by drvale on November 27, 2006 9:12 PM