Video Games and Learning

What, exactly, does Gee claim about the role of games in classroom instruction?
Gee mentioned three key points:

1. Games can trigger a part in the brain that gives emotional meaning to things which enables people to process information with empathy.
    
2. The violence issue in games is a hot topic for politicians because it gets a lot of attention.  There are  many games that are not violent.  He said, “I don't know any rational person that doesn't advocate having controls on games in ways young people shouldn't be playing adult games, just as we do with movies and books and other things. Violence is carried by the culture. It's all about contacts.  So a violent book or video game in the hands of a person who's a disturbed child or in a disturbed culture is dangerous, and we should worry about the disturbed culture and child.”
    
3. Video games are not killing reading and writing, instead, it’s changing the paradigm of reading and writing.  Students can read and write in chat rooms, in the games and the forums.  They read more about their interest and some of the things they read are of even higher level of language and skill compared to what are given to them to read in classrooms.

How, according to the video, does learning-with-games occur?  Are these views supported by the theories discussed in previous sections of this module?

According to the video,

• games provide students the learning skills to virtually get them engaged in the modern working world. This view is supported by conditioning theory as associative learning takes place when some virtual world games are being related by learners to their own real-life experiences.  Positive reinforcements are added to games through earning scores/points to reward the students foraccomplishing the desired tasks; or negative reinforcements are given to learners for correction.

• students work together as social networks, where some work as experts and others as novices. This view is supported by the social constructivist theory of learning. They learn from one another and gather techniques and strategies, and then they use the gathered expertiseto their advantage.

• the language of games are almost second nature to most children now, therefore learners are now challenged to design and build their own games. This view is supported by the embodiment theory.  First, learners are exposed to thefamiliar game scenarios, then the rest of the game designing depends on their creativity andcritical thinking abilities.  And because they build their own game for other people, they haveto think differently about game designing by being sensitive to the learning needs of their game users.