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Melanie McBride is a researcher at Ryerson University’s Experiential Design and Gaming Environments (EDGE) lab. See her About page for more information.
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The following post was originally published for Ryerson University’s EDGElab blog This is a picture of learning in action. It’s what happens when you go off-road and really explore and test the limits of things and disaster becomes success. It’s also the basis for meaningful, autonomous and open ended learning and play. And the starting [...] “In search of diamonds” Blocky mix (minecraft machinima) Last week I finally got around to playing the lavatacular 8-bit sandbox PC game Minecraft! In addition to having lots of fun, I’m also thinking all the great forms of learning it engages. Bryan Alexander, was among the first to identify the educational virtues of the game’s [...] Happy as I am that some educators have recognised the value and importance of videogames for learning, I’m increasingly concerned about approaches that I think will suck the life out of gaming and play. I’ve already written about meaningful approaches to learning about and with games (which touched on gamification) but I felt a [...]
“Gee and other educators worry that students who are comfortable participating in and exchanging knowledge through affinity spaces are being de-skilled as they enter the classroom”- Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture Every day, I’m struck by the differences between the experiences I have in situated affinity spaces and those of my educational communities [...] Know your Meme: Leeroy Jenkins (if you don’t know this meme, read on :) “By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation of multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences [...] Gamers enjoying the “retro recroom” at gamercamp Institutional and informal game play: What’s at stake for learning? The image above is from Gamercamp, a Toronto gaming unconference where I moderated a panel on “Play”. What I saw there and pictured above was an awesome example of truly holistic, situated, informal learning. And the [...] My second Machinima: Epic Journey: Travel forms in WoW Have you ever wanted to fly (like a bird)? This is just one more thing you can experience in a synthetic world that you can’t do in reality. And I stress the word “experience” versus activity – because the brain doesn’t distinguish between “real” or [...] Hurrah! The other day the New York Times feature “Learning by Playing: Videogames in the Classroom” was the big talk among many of the Twittering teachers I follow. While many edu-gamers have long known the value of games for learning (and I’m not talking “educational” games), the really interesting story for me is the [...] “The reward, in other words, doesn’t have to be a useful or fun thing in itself, it need only be an obvious outward sign that the wearer of it has done some difficult work to get it.” - Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds : The business and culture of online games (2005) [...] In my ongoing quest to locate the pedagogical value of games (via game play, research and dialogue), I have come across an interesting example of situated learning in WoW: The random dungeon, or “PUG.” For those of you unfamiliar with the term, here is an excellent and educator friendly overview. “A PUG [...] |
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