Double Entry Journal #12

Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming

1 What is the main argument the author is making in Chapter 5.

The author is arguing that the tutorials in video games tend to use a better use of learning than schools these days. By this he means that students are more engaged and have an easier learning curve in video games than in school.

2. What constitutes a theory of learning?

   A theory of learning is something that allows students to learn and still have a full understanding using increasingly difficult challenges. When students are allowed to explore and take things at their own pace, then they can learn the best.

3. Why did the author struggle to learn to play Warcraft III? What needs to proceed before good learning principles?

The author had troubles because he wasn't as motivated to move on, since he was unfamiliar with the games learning and design. Motivation for extended engagement needs to proceed before good learning principles.

4. How would have the authors struggle with learning to play Warcraft III been interpreted in school?

In school, the author would have been interpreted as being lazy and would fail a class.

5 What kind of learning experience might be better suited for at risk students?

"Horizontal learning" it is a way of learning that allows students to take their time. It allows students to not progress fast, but learn the basics on their own while building their way up the skill ladder when they eventually can relate the skills to real life events.

6. Why does the school-based interpretation of "at risk" lead to bad learning?

Schools tend to make "at risk" students go back for remedial classes and hold them back, because they don't progress fast enough, rather than at their own pace.

7. What do schools need to do to function more like a good game?

Schools need to use a more tutorial like approach or a more experience based approach. They need to let the students engulf themselves in the world of subject matter. Total immersion in an area of expertise lets students build those skills in a meaningful way.

8. What is different about how good games and school assess learners?

Schools use tests that assesses students in a way that uses meaningless knowledge rather than real world skills in meaningful situations, like a good games.

9. What are the attributes of a  fish-tank tutorial that make it an effective learning tool? How is it different than school-based learning?

fish-tank tutorial: uses hand-holding, multimodal means of learning, lots of redundancy, and the information is given right when it is needed. In "real life" situations, the tutorial gives the information the student needs to put the basic building blocks together to learn the greater knowledge in the end. 

It uses Vygotsky's zone of proximal development to help students learn and feel successful in their learning.

10. What is a sand-box tutorial? Why is effective? How is it different that school-based learning? 

a sand-box tutorial is when a real life situation is presented in a safe, clean way, like a real sandbox to a child. In a sandbox, kids can learn and explore the world in a safe, timely manner, just like in this same tutorial style. like the "quick start" in RoN.

11. What is a genre? Why is it important for good learning?

A genre is a type of something. In learning, it is always good to know what type of thing you're doing, that way you can structure your mind process to wrap your mind around it.

12. According to the author, what to learning and play having in common?

If learning stops, then fun stops, and eventually play stops.

13. How are the skills test in good games different from skills tests in school?

Skills tests in games are developmental for the learner and not evaluative.

 

14. How does RoN support collaborative learning?

It uses the multiplayer interface as well as the computer to build cooperation within the game.