Well, I guess it depends on the game itself. Like for instance, I learned chess by playing online games and needless to say it taught me a lot. A fun game has the advantage of engaging you more than a boring lecture. It depends on the environment I suppose.

Do you view video game integration as more of an impetus earlier in the learner’s life, or as a tool to subsidize learning. I agree in your analysis of its potential, but question its use in general higher education. Maybe it’s just because of my subject area, but I am not yet convinced. We are an interesting generation, indeed.

Yes, balance. And I share trepidation about video game integration in university courses. I commented in another blog that our generation has potential to successfully implement this transition because of our unique timing bridging technology and tradition. Here’s to using our skepticism well!

Your stance seems quite healthy and balanced–not forsaking tradition and convention, while simultaneously acknowledging contemporary methodology. I say we need more of this, and maybe that will be the greatest contribution of our generation. The preponderance of discussion about going full-force into technological classrooms is certainly worrying for me and my field of study, but we need not fall behind either.

I think this is great! I would love the opportunity to experience this! It would be so cool to live in a generation that experiences this as a norm!

This is a great post! You raised so many good points. I think asking good questions is so important but that designing the difficulty to where critical thinking is facilitated can be tricky! Nonetheless, an incredibly important one to address!

The author of the article I mentioned in the post does say something along the lines of colleges/professors needing to first teach their students how to listen before they will be able to appreciate lectures. How to do this though? That’s a tough one. As I mentioned in the post, attention spans and effort put forth by students (which are both low, often) are an obstacle to the success of the lecture format, but bad lectures are just as much (if not more?) to blame. Some of my favorite classes I’ve taken have been primarily lecture-based, but the the professors were charismatic and made the content interesting so most of us couldn’t help but pay attention. Having a good class and a well-structured lecture are probably a great place to start, but then the students will have to meet us somewhere in the middle.

This is a great concept! I think games make learning much more fun and diverse! It would be really awesome to see more fields begin to adapt technology in game form to facilitate learning!

Thanks for sharing your idea and let me tell you that I agree that the professors should be evaluated, however It seems to me that they will not allow that somebody record them. For example when I did my MSCE, there was this professor that believed that he had the power of evaluating other professors from the Civil Engineering department. He used to attend other professors classes without telling them. Just because of this every professor said that the only way that they should be evaluated was by the student who are learning from them. Another thing is, how often do you think they should be monitored? I have noticed that some professors tend to reduce their level of teaching every year. Somebody that has been teaching for 3 years will not have the same emotion to teach like one that has been teaching for 20 years and is getting tired of it.

You can’t deny that you do acquire some knowledge by the available technology. Most power you get by really putting in your personal effort, like spending a lot of time reading about a subject or working on a paper. But, it is certainly easier to be informed. However with all this information comes even more distractions. It is up to us as instructors to steer our students away from them by kindling their passion for learning.