Week 7

I read the article "Uganda's Road to Peace May Run Through the River of Forgiveness". The premise for this game interests me, and I think that this type of game holds real promise for the field of education. Role-playing games with a purpose of teaching particular concepts intrigue me as regular role-playing games do not -- to be honest, I can't imagine spending time in Second Life voluntarily, nor can I see myself spending time as many of my male students do playing Call of Duty. But I could see myself playing a game that was a "playable fiction" with an objective of teaching life or value lessons.

I think what it all comes back to for me is the issue of how I value my time. I am not a gamer by nature because I have so many other demands on my time; I avoid the types of games that would engage me in a fiction because I know (being an avid reader that can get lost in a book) that I could easily get too engrossed and lose track of other aspects of my life. It is this same ability to engage and engross, however, that leads me to an interest in these games from an academic point of view; I see the potential of these games to engage my students in their learning in a way that in-class instruction cannot approach. I've already outlined my game concept in a previous blog, and my readings have only served to confirm that I am heading in the right direction with my concept.

I appreciate the point made by Aldrich in Learning by Doing, in discussing the resources required to develop full simulations, and the fact that the system is reluctant to shell out the resources necessary to develop this type of game. How are we going to balance the ongoing budget constraints with the need to develop technologies that enhance and revitalize our teaching? Is it even possible to do so? He contends that there is money in the education field -- witness the billions of dollars being spent on education -- but is it possible to free this money up without impacting other crucial programs? Is education unrealistic to expect to reap the benefits of technology without having to invest the resources, or can we continue to expect salvation from white knights with a charitable bent?