Double Entry Journal #12

Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming


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

• That there is a connect between video games and learning and how playing them can increase student learning.

2. What constitutes a theory of learning?

• Patterns and Priciples are what constitute a theory of learning.

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

• He struggled in playing the game because he didn't engage in it in a way with it's learning priciples. He needs to be more motivated to proceed.

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

• As failure becasue he recieved a low or failing grade.

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

• Gee says that "at-risk" learners need a dumbed-down curriculum ment to catch them up on basic skills.

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

• Because they are not challenging the students. They are just teaching them the basic skills that the student needs to know.

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

• Students should be challenged more and encouraged to take on the identities of what they are working on.

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

• Schools assess learners by having them take tests. If a student fails a test the teacher then decides what is best for that student. Good games allow the students to choose what setting they like best and how they learn best.

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?

• All learners are different so the designers don't know what the players desired learning style will be. Also the learners don't know what learning stule will work best in each situation. This is different because in school- based learning they asses the learner and then decide how they will deal with the student.

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

• The sand-box tutorial is where the student is free to explore and take risks. It is effective because it allows the students to descover the best ways they learn. This is different than school based learning because in school-based learning you don't get to explore. The students just are to do things the way the teachers say to do it.

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

• A genre is a category or a type of thing that something is. In able to learn the student needs to know what type of things we are asking them to learn in order to be successful.

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

• You always are learning something when you are having fun so they are connect in that way.

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

• Skills test in good games are something that students can actually learn from and school testing is constantly the same.

14. How does RoN support collaborative learning?

• They have blogs and websites were people can share or gain knowledge. This knowledge comes from many different people from many different places so this allows a wide range of knowledge.

15. Match at least one learning principle of good games (on page 74) with each the following learning theorists you have studied in 3352:
Dewey : #22

Vygotsky: #12

Piaget: #5
Gardner: #14

Bandura: #1

Skinner: #8