She has just announced a new "game" that will take place during one overnight at the New York Public Library on 42nd St. Definitely check it out - and let's discuss how something like this could be created that connects books & games in our classrooms!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
How video games can save the world! And how games can connect us in our real world, thru books.
Jane McGonigal is a researcher out in San Francisco who has made it her life's mission to show how the time (3 billion hours a week, globally) people spend gaming could be harnessed to solve very real world problems. Here is her TED talk from 2010 that explains what she means by that. She also has a written a book on the subject. (And was on the Colbert Report earlier this year.)
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This video is so amazing and ispiring! at the beginning when I started watching it, I didn't understand how playing on line video games so many hours a day could possibly change the world into a better place.
ReplyDeleteI recently attended to a conference about verbal behavior based on Skinners theory of motivation. In order to change or mantain a bahavior we need to find what is the real motivation of that person to change or not to change an specific behavior. According to Skinner, once we analyse and understand the motivation, we can modify the behavior in any way we want.
As human beings we like to be rewarded for what we do and we like to feel that our actions produce positive results. we also like to be challenged but not to a frustration level point but just to a level that is hard enough but not to hard ( what Vigotsky calls teh zone of proiximal development).
I believe that online video games are so rewarding because we have constant positive feedback from other online players and we are not isolated in our own little world but there is a giant comunnity of online players that share the same goal as we do. There is constant collaboration, which makes it a lot easier to overcome the obstacles of the game.
As Bob Regan (2008)points out in his article Why We Need to Teach 21st Century Skills—And How to Do It "No matter what field students go into, their skills in collaborating will be significant factors in their success" I think collaboration is an essential characteristic that new technologies can enhance not just trough online video games but trough other means, such as virtual schools, as mentioned by Regan. In these virtual schools students and teachers from all over the world can participate in meaningful ways and make learning a truly experience of global collaboration.