Gee Article

This article is great. This really brings forward everything I think of but can't explain. I love all the ideas he gets across. The way he uses the basis of learning in a game and school is interesting. If school would let you learn the same way you learn in games you would be more interested in things. The fact that he says failure is a good thing in games makes you wonder why it is not in school, don't you have to fail sometimes to learn? You can't always get everything the first time and most of the time people don't. Sometimes teachers are to harsh and react to quick to when they see students fail. I think the best type of learning is trail and error. In school you're always afraid of taking risk you wait for a set of instructions because you don't want to be the one who does something wrong. Sometimes we feel restricted, well at least I do. Restricted in the sense that why can't we do something the way we see it express what we really feel and see. Another thing that I strongly agree with is that Gee he says games talk back maybe not the character verbally but by the new things that arise like challenges. These challenges are what keep you going but the challenges given are not challenges that seem to big for you to handle. These challenges are small enough to push your mind but not big enough to make you want to give up. I believe that's what happens in school, the challenges given sometimes make you want to give up and not try anymore this is where failure would be good. Allow someone to fail in order to learn. I think the biggest problem we have in school is that at times they don't lead you with something small to get to something big. Some teachers believe if you get the big/hard stuff out the way everything will be easier, which is true but how does this big stuff effect ones thinking. If you do something and find it really hard and barely get by it and you do something else you doubt yourself whether you can do this next thing or not. When Gee says " the problem players face are ordered so that the earlier ones are well built to lead players to form hypotheses that work well for later, harder problems." This same way of creating video games should be applied to learning. Small problems help built theories and ideas so when you do come to the big stuff you have an idea as of how to tackle it. When he uses "just in time" and "on demand" I think it's great because sometimes teachers bore you thinking you need information but you already get it. Sometimes they don't give information when you don't get things. You should be able to ask the teacher at anytime to help explain, your on demand, without being afraid of slowing down a lesson and getting them mad. Slowing down learning is great because it gives you a better understanding and might help you grasp things further ahead. I think there is plenty more that you can learn from a game that you can apply to school. Games can really test you and push you in better ways than books sometimes. God of War is the perfect example, you must adapt your way of fighting in order to defeat new bosses and new puzzles. This gives you a more complex way of thinking which can help your mind develop.