Looking Where the Light is Bad

Gee, J.P. and D.W. Shaffer.(2010). Looking where the light is bad: Video games and the future of assessment (Epistemic Games Group Working Paper No. 2010-02). Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Looking-where-the-light-is-bad-tr1.pdf

In the past we have referred to games as good “learning engines.” Here we argue that games are good learning engines because they are first good assessment engines. Games require the kind of thinking that we need in the 21st Century because they use actual learning as the basis for assessment. They test not only current knowledge and skills, but also preparation for future learning. They measure 21st Century skills like collaboration, innovation, production, and design by tracking many different kinds of information about a student, over time. Thus we suggest that the road to better schools starts by making the tests in school more like the games that students are already playing out of school.