There was an article that appeared sometime last week and a young man saves some accident victims by using the knowledge he gained by playing some video games designed by the army. That is good news, on reading the article more closely it appeared that what he did was something very practical that I would have done when I was a 10-15 year old kid (Especially an accident prone kid wherein I had made it to the ER with a broken head to the ER in several occasions by myself) Not to speak highly of myself but what I am wondering now is what is it that people in the real world would like to learn from the virtual worlds. And who are these people, what character traits do they display or should display to be able to be successfully learn in virtual worlds. There was a recent article that says that the Google generation learners learn better in interactive environments than static environments however, this will mean that text has to be compromised. Can we go to such extremes...
More thoughts along these lines will follow.
3 comments:
I love the America's Army game. It's the best free game ever.
Does second life count as a game?
Whenever I mention SL to a person that doesn't know what it is, and they ask "what's that, a game?" I always say "kinda...it's like you live in the internet...and you can fly."
Anyway, I've heard a good amount of these "video games = life" stories. Like how part of a soldier's training now includes playing these hardcore-type games to get ready for when they actually have to fly a plane...disengage a bomb...kill a person?? I'm not sure as to how much I believe this at all, but if any of it were at all true, especially the more detailed/extreme stories...do I count as a soldier, then?
One thing that kinda makes me sad/mad is that kids are playing these types of games too. If I practiced all I know from Grand Theft Auto, I'd be the hardest thug on the streets, seriously; I will carjack you right now.
I would imagine that the place to start in determining the answer to your questions would be the large body of literature on what type of students are successful in "online learning." UF's online library has many good articles on these topics.
After that, it would be worth it to see what research has been done in terms of successful students in VWE's. Then find a gap -- something that has not yet been done in VWE's - and attempt a study to address that gap.
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