Blog #9

The concept of using gaming in education is not a new one to me. I've had several classes that attempted to integrate Second Life in some way. To be quite honest, this is one area of technology that I'm not very supportive of in the area of education. If games or virtual MMORPGs existed that were actually educational or meaningful I would be all for it. Granted, I've only had limited experiences with various gaming programs, but, I really just don't see it.

Second Life really accomplishes nothing other than allowing you to run around in various worlds, it's not intuitive or particularly user-friendly. I consider myself to be a "digital native" I'm fairly comfortable with new programs/technologies and rarely have to look at directions for how things work...I just figure it out. However, with Second Life I was frustrated nearly the whole time, either the game lagged so much I could hardly move or I couldn't figure out how to access something. My teacher wanted us to go on a "scavenger hunt" and explore some online environments, but, I saw no educational value in any of this. It was unorganized and frankly, it was sort of chaotic.

I know that kids use video games a lot, I grew up with a Nintendo 64 and loved it, there just needs to be a company that steps up and revolutionizes the way we think about educational games. Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit don't grab students' attention, they don't sit for hours playing it and they certainly don't interest high school students like Call of Duty or Halo do. There has to be a change.