Epistemic game plan
A recent article in techLearning looks at educational games in general, and highlights epistemic games in particular:
A powerful argument for video games in schools as a concept whose time has come can be found in the 2004 publication, “Video Games and the Future of Learning,” by David Williamson Shaffer, Kurt R. Squire, Richard Halverson, and James P. Gee of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory. In it, the authors paint a compelling picture of today’s best-designed video games fulfilling Papert’s early vision: an environment in which engagement and higher-order thinking skills combine in a challenging, learner-centered instructional setting. The authors make the point that “computers are already changing the way we learn, and if you want to understand how, look at video games–look at video games because they create new social and cultural worlds, worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in service of doing things they care about.”
