Blogger Brent Schlenker

Brent is a Corporate Learning Blogger, Strategist, and Consultant who got a copy of How Computer Games Help Children Learn from a colleague. He’s put up a couple of posts on the book, including a “prediction for 2007″:

I believe it will begin to move Games into the learning world as a legitimate learning tool.  I loved reading this book and have recommended to all my friends.

He also writes in another post:

Epistemic Frames – I love this term. It took me a while to get used to it, but by the end of the book David had me hooked. I also love the term SKIVE – That’s something we can all hang our collective hat on. (Read the book or wait for me to find time to post about it.)

That’s really great to hear, because the word “epistemic” was always something of a risk in the book. People don’t know what it means. They can’t pronounce it. It makes a simple and important idea sound really complex.

I kept the term because epistemology–the study of knowledge–really is at the center of the debate. School is organized around a particular understanding of what’s worth knowing and how people learn it. The claim is that the academic disciplines are the “fundamental ways of thinking” that everyone needs. The idea of epistemic frames is that people who solve problems in the real world have ways of thinking that are just as coherent and fundamental as academic disciplines.

So I stuck with the term, knowing that it takes a little getting used to because it captures an important point:

The ways we frame problems in the real world are just as epistemological as the way we frame problems in school–not to mention more motivating and more useful as well.

Brent’s conclusion?

Anyone with kids, working in education, or simply is a passionate, life-long learner should read this book. Will this change everything overnight? NO! But at least we will all agree on what general direction we should be headed and start the process of change to make it happen.

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Brent promises to write more about his reactions. Look for them on his blog.