Gee & Gee (2017) Games as distributed teaching and learning systems
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Gee & Gee (2017) established in this article that real and virtual experiences are mediated in similar ways and videogames are one of the ways that we mediate a connection between the physical and virtual world. Gee and Gee discuss how the virtual world mimics the physical world but it gives players a level of freedom to choose their level of engagement, a freedom often not afforded to them in traditional learning environments. Games like Portals and other distributed forms of teaching and learning allow players/learners to choose their levels of engagement, whether playing individually or cooperatively and learning through trial and error, to engaging in online discussions, to creating their own maps and challenges which again, is something that educators and educational systems attempt but rarely achieve consistently or to the same levels of success.
2
While Gee and Gee do acknowledge there are affinity spaces for negative activities (i.e. criminal activity and terrorism) they still have a very idealized version of Affinity Spaces and seem to ignore that while many people do interact in the positive ways they suggest, many people also engage in forms of gatekeeping and discrimination such as having to prove a certain level of fandom, or as seen in “Gamergate” * . While Gee and Gee’s conclusion that “…distributed systems of teaching and learning will lead to better and deeper theories of teaching and learning in the 21st century”, is a nice goal, it ignores the reality that most educational jurisdictions lack the infrastructure, namely teacher training and funding, to achieve this goal, a point Gee and Gee fail to acknowledge.
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Gee & Gee (2017) used the example of two sixth graders. However, Amanda can’t figure out the correct tools and she doesn’t read to the level of what she needs for her project. What would be the requirement of prior knowledge for the DTAL system to work properly, and does age matter?
Gee (2008) Cats and portals: Video games, learning, and play.
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Gee (2008) distinguishes games into problem games and world games, and he used the game Portal as an example to explain that video games can draw learning instead of serving the purpose of learning. Gee (2008) considers that people are open to possibilities when playing games just like how cats can always find something interesting in the same place they’ve been to before. In the virtual world, games are the tools for us to see the world from a different perspective and possibilities, where we have the opportunity to learn and practice the skills we need in the real world.
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Gee(2008) dances around the point of relevance but fails to specifically state in his paper that the reason that World of Warcraft, Civilization, Yu-Gi-Oh and other games are better at utilizing the real-world skills like teamwork, literacy and expertise is because unlike in school and work, the relevance of the tasks and the use of the skills is laid out plainly for all to see while at school and work, we are often left to guess at the importance/meaning of the tasks we are given. When Gee discusses Portal, I think he leaves out an important discussion around the fact that in a game like Portal, or indeed, most modern games, one of the most effective parts of learning the physics is that the player has as many chances as they want to get it right and are not permanently penalized for getting it wrong thus creating creative and knowledgeable players who aren’t afraid of making mistakes, or the exact opposite of the types of students most school systems create, despite their claims otherwise.
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Gee (2008) offers many examples of how people initiate discussions (Yu-Gi-Oh!), websites, and projects (Pro-Ams) of games. How heavily should we examine the quality of the games to facilitate that kind of actions to happen?
Bridge
Both journals argue that video games are more than just something to play with, they are also human-run simulations of the real world, which serve as tools for people to see the world in new ways and angles. They both used the game Portal to demonstrate the fact that knowledge can exist in both the “real” and “virtual” worlds. Gee (2008) pays special attention to discovery while Gee & Gee (2017) give a heavier focus on conversation, social interaction and experiences.
References:
Gee, J. P. (2008). Cats and portals: Video games, learning, and play. American Journal of Play, 1 (2), 229.
Gee, E., & Gee, J. P. (2017). Games as distributed teaching and learning systems. Teachers College Record, 119 (11).