In the online forum for my PIDP 3250 course, Simon Crothers (a classmate) asked the class to reflect on the following paragraph:
"Bowen (2012, p. 71) suggests that adult learning should be designed around a customizable, graduated series of challenges that are pleasantly frustrating, similar to many video games. The video game industry has exploded in recent years with 59% of Canadians playing video games and the average age of a Canadian gamer being 33 years old (Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2011). Technologies such as social networking and digital media have entered higher education and we are now starting to see video game concepts entering it as well. Student levels of attention are on the decline and they are acquiring valuable skills and knowledge through gaming instead of in the classroom. Research by Sheldon (2011) who redesigned his course around massively multiplayer online games and Broussard (2011) who introduced controllable avatars for online discussion are just two examples demonstrating the success of introducing gaming concepts to the classroom."
References
Bowen, J. A. (2012). Teaching Naked. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
I remember reading this paragraph in the book as I used to play quite a few video games when I was younger. One of the things I learned from this was to embrace the concept of learning from failure.
Generally most games consisted of a series of puzzles with each one more challenging than the previous one. I would willingly partake in each puzzle for a number of reasons with one of the more important ones being that the consequences of failure were little to none. At the end of each failure I would be forced to reflect on what had not worked with my previous strategy and would then make a change and see if this change made a difference.
I can't help but reflect on the traditional state of university education where failure is generally viewed as a negative. Evidence of this being the heavy use of assessment of learning rather than assessment for learning. In my undergraduate degree it was a rare event to receive feedback without consequence... in other words all feedback came with a mark that had an impact on my final mark. Hardly ever did I receive feedback on my learning that did not come with a consequence.
So yes, I think more assessment for learning where there are no negative consequences for failure would be a good thing.
"Bowen (2012, p. 71) suggests that adult learning should be designed around a customizable, graduated series of challenges that are pleasantly frustrating, similar to many video games. The video game industry has exploded in recent years with 59% of Canadians playing video games and the average age of a Canadian gamer being 33 years old (Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2011). Technologies such as social networking and digital media have entered higher education and we are now starting to see video game concepts entering it as well. Student levels of attention are on the decline and they are acquiring valuable skills and knowledge through gaming instead of in the classroom. Research by Sheldon (2011) who redesigned his course around massively multiplayer online games and Broussard (2011) who introduced controllable avatars for online discussion are just two examples demonstrating the success of introducing gaming concepts to the classroom."
References
Bowen, J. A. (2012). Teaching Naked. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
I remember reading this paragraph in the book as I used to play quite a few video games when I was younger. One of the things I learned from this was to embrace the concept of learning from failure.
Generally most games consisted of a series of puzzles with each one more challenging than the previous one. I would willingly partake in each puzzle for a number of reasons with one of the more important ones being that the consequences of failure were little to none. At the end of each failure I would be forced to reflect on what had not worked with my previous strategy and would then make a change and see if this change made a difference.
I can't help but reflect on the traditional state of university education where failure is generally viewed as a negative. Evidence of this being the heavy use of assessment of learning rather than assessment for learning. In my undergraduate degree it was a rare event to receive feedback without consequence... in other words all feedback came with a mark that had an impact on my final mark. Hardly ever did I receive feedback on my learning that did not come with a consequence.
So yes, I think more assessment for learning where there are no negative consequences for failure would be a good thing.