Back in the UK now but I wanted to write a couple of blog posts on some good talks I went to at SXSW and assess why the less good ones didn’t cut it.
What We Can Learn From Games had a high powered line up. The three old boys, as they described themselves, Henry Jenkins of MIT, James Gee of Arizona State and Warren Spector Creative Director of Junction Point, have long track records in games design and academia with Rich Wilson of Mobile Pie describing Deus Ex by Spector as his favourite game. They spoke with great erudition and self-deprecating modesty on how games can be used in learning. Gee was particularly good, describing how games teach you two very useful things : failure is good, i.e. Keep trying stuff in the game, keep failing and eventually you’ll work out what the move is and that collaboration is effective - if you cant work out the move, go online and ask about it in a forum. Of course, these are the two things that school regimes are specifically designed to suppress : failure and collaboration. Yet, according to the panel, the type of visualisations and immersive modelling that games offer are closer to how higher academia and business now work.
The criticism of school is a familiar one and one that can be traced back to Illich (De-schooling Society) and beyond. School teaches the passive acquisition of knowledge, not how use it in the creation of effective models. School doesn’t cultivate an emotional connection with a subject, rather it so often alienates pupils from learning. However, it was really heartening hearing such eminent individuals voicing these criticisms within such a forum. SXSW might be many things but its not generally the place to find exciting, critical thought.
The panel talked a bit about how experiments around game play within school lessons during the 90s didn’t have much success. The structure of the school day didn’t accommodate extended game play very well and pupils had trouble integrating game knowledge and formal learning. Home schoolers, by contrast, fair far better. Obviously they have the flexible schedule that can allow for gaming, but they are also far better at taking ownership for their own learning and integrating experiential learning with formal bodies of knowledge.
Current work with games and education has games played outside of the classroom (with the obvious risks of social exclusion), then discussion around game themes, mechanics and physics taking place during lessons. However, Spector urged game designers to create the complexity within games that can model real world problems. It was also pointed out by Jenkins that game space learning needs to go along with basic media literacy. On these last points there was a really intriguing observation by the panel that, rather like with the beginning of formal film study courses in the 60s & 70s, game design courses are now producing a new generation of game developers and consumers literate in game aesthetics. This means the ideas and mechanics being deployed in games are beginning to become more complex and ambitious. Increasingly sophisticated game developers have a player-ship for their games. This historical change has given rise to a vibrant independent games community such as Manifesto Games. Oh and there’s a new school opening in New York that has been designed by game designers, building and curriculum. But now I am rambling.
Tags: business, change, design, Education, exciting, film, game, games, media, mobile, obvious, schedule, Simon Games, sxsw
