Talk:Games and learning

Kathleen's Comments 4/12

Hi Stephanie,

I am very interested in games & learning, so this was a nice read for me. I have bulletted a few suggestions below:

• In your intro paragraph you have cited a few sources either providing definition for Games and Learning or advocating for their use. Consider reading over this paragraph and add phrases to make the short piece flow and describing what something like "ways of caring" might mean. Also consider rephrasing a few of the quotes that may come across as a bit more biased.
• In the section on research, don't forget to cite the 21st century education definition.
• Watch for sentences like "shape, facilitate and, yes, even teach problem solving" as they sound more like a paper or conversation rather than an encyclopedic entry. (Perhaps remove the and, yes' portion.)
• Consider the organization of the "Application" section. Perhaps divide different application into paragraphs or bullets with citation and description. (This section was very interesting to me.)
• In the controversy section, do no forget to specifically list a bit of the "against" controversy. For example, what do people think is wrong with G&L? Are there 3-4 points they assert against G&L?
• It seems that your "notes" are formatting oddly; if you need any help figuring that out, I am happy to do so! The may just be placeholders for the time being.

Kfranzen (talk) 16:01, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Julie's Comments 4/8

Hi Steffenie!

I thought I would leave you a few comments, even if I know that you are still in the process of refining your opening paragraph.

• What is the pre-paragraph before the bold "Games and Learning"? I think the history component of it could be interesting later, but be careful of bias ;)
• You use educational notion in your definition... I think there needs to be something stronger. Also, is games and learning exclusive to formal education? What about informal learning? I think you could broaden this beyond education and beyond just video games.
• What do you mean by further education?
• I would avoid a phrase like will create because that is your opinion. I like your final sentence about what games bring. Maybe focus more on the strengths of games and what learning can happen there. Let people come to our same conclusion that they're valuable ;)

Games and learning is the educational notion that video games should be used to further education. Video games create new social and cultural worlds - worlds that help us learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in service of doing things we care about. Computers and other technologies have already changed the way students learn. Integrating games into education will create new and more powerful ways to learn in schools, communities and workplaces...Games bring together ways of knowing, ways of doing, ways of being, and ways of caring.

Again, I know you are just getting started, but maybe my comments will help as you start revising. Kalipdx (talk) 17:35, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

Games and Learning

Hi Steffenie,

This is a very interesting article. I like your lead section. It is clear, direct and concise. One suggestion: in the last line of this section, you have communities and workplaces...Games bring together ways of knowing, ways of doing, ways of being, and ways of caring it might not be the best formatting practice to have ... in a Wiki article.

The research section lists out the various advantages that Video Games have over traditional schools. Research section does not present an unbiased view. Can you re-phrase that, so that research from both sides is included in this section? In the application section, there are underscores, which shouldnt be there.

I like the idea that you will mention the different forms of games that are used in education.

Overall, this is a really strong start, it just needs to be a little unbiased. I hope you find the comments useful. Thanks!Trawat (talk) 18:16, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

Lists of games removed

I've removed the list of games for a few reasons:

• Lists of things are generally poor practice for Wikipedia articles, as they encourage editors to add new items to the list rather than contextualizing each for the reader. We want to offer the reader some indication of why we're including them and we'd like to also give the reader some sense of proportionally how important each are to education. For instance, while Steinkuhler's work on WoW w/ after school programs is valuable (and kicked off a cottage industry in using explicitly non-educational games for learing), we don't get that sense from the list and we also don't offer the reader a way to compare the use of WoW (which in absolute terms is relatively small) to Oregon Trail or Sim City.
• Most of the list did not contain citations pointing to their use in education. I'm aware Sim City, Minecraft and WoW have been used (and I suspect other elements on the list have as well), but a critical reader will want some indication that they have been added for reasons which aren't parochial.

Any editor may replace the list if they like (including the original creator of the article), but I'd recommend integrating some of that information into the rest of the article and scrutinizing some of the more marginal elements closely before replacing them, as they may not add that much to the readers understanding of the subject. Adam (Wiki Ed) (talk) 16:05, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Reply to Games List Removed

I would like the opportunity to explain why the games were given as examples of games where players learn, so I have added the list back - it is still a work in progress... I will add citations and integrate more info in with the game list. (I also needed to add the list back so that I could copy the info and technical elements and put them into a google doc) Also, the term education is broad and includes items that may not be used in schools and/or by students. Learning can be done outside of the school setting. My article talks about learning and education in a broader sense. Thanks for your advice. Shwilliams1 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 02:51, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Is this a school project?

@Adam (Wiki Ed) and Shwilliams1: Is this a school project? If so, shouldn't it be tagged with Template:Educational assignment on this page? If you respond, please use {{ping|Anarchyte}}. Anarchyte (work | talk) 06:51, 24 June 2016 (UTC)