I like playing wow. There I said it. Judge me if you must. I see a lot of learning possibilities in wow. But it's not what you think. I don't think everybody should start playing wow as part of their job. And while I'm convinced kids do learn a lot while playing the game, I'm not convinced that those skills transfer completely into the real world.
What I do know is that unreachable, hyperactive, "problem" kids can sit for hours fully focused, communicating with others, functioning as part of team, and feel successful in a world that most perceive as just a game. But I'd argue that Chess is just a game.
But no time for that argument here. I just thought this video might interest some of my friends in education.
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4 comments:
Here's my example on both the power of gaming to drive learning generally and WoW specifically- a friend of a friend of mine failed an advanced math course in college on his first attempt. Over the following summer, he got into wow and, along the way, learned more math just from playing. He also studied and learned more math to understand how wow worked. He went back and aced the class with no trouble.
Sometimes, you just have to find the personal learning environment and network that works for you. Or maybe you need the competitive motivation to be the very best at whatever you do. Either way, wow works for creating exciting learning environments.
Hi Kelly! Thanks for sharing that story. I LOVE IT! I don't think anyone would ever think you could learn MATH in WoW. But as a player I can completely see it.
Managing money is another great learning opportunity. My kids are constantly asking me to transfer gold from my characters to theirs so they can buy this that or the other weapon or armor. I often find myself asking my son, "do you really to spend 100 gold on a something that will only raise your armor by +10"...or something close to that.
And when I don't give them the gold an explain to them how to EARN gold instead, I start to feel like my dad when I was a kid in REAL life..."GET A JOB"! And so they do. My oldest daughter doesn't really enjoy "playing" the game, but she LOVES dressing up her toon and learning tailoring...she spends her gold based on what looks good not on the buff increase amounts.
I'd love to hear more details specifically around the math your friend's friend learned. It would make for a great interview segment. Let me know if you can hook us up for say 30mins.
thanks!
Brent,
Thanks for reposting the article and the video of our awesome students. I think the statements that both you and Kelly make hit at the very core of this project and that's taking an existing game and extracting the learning value from it. That's what we're attempting to do here and the results, so far, have been incredible. Our students are totally engaged!
Of course, we'll be sharing all of this through the project wiki - http://wowinschool.pbworks.com as we go.
Again, thanks!
Lucas Gillispie
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