There’s a very interesting article I read about how video games are better teachers than the current school system. I found this article through Lloyd who found it through someone else.

I agree with the article.

The article says, “Also, good videogames incorporate the principle of expertise. They tend to encourage players to achieve total mastery of one level, only to challenge and undo that mastery in the next, forcing kids to adapt and evolve.” Schools aren’t pushing kids to the limit. If I work hard and try to get 100 in the class, but I am lazy and still get an A, which choice am I going to choose? Hm. Less work, same result… Or, more work, same result.

I’m also reminded how in certain games, one can keep trying to improve their score. To a lesser extent, this is shown in my quest to become Minesweeper King. (And now I’ve upgraded that quest to Minesweeper Messiah — more on that later.) School doesn’t encourage this. Once you’ve studied a topic. Bam! — You’re done with it. Memorization complete. Information DISCARDED! Meanwhile, replayability is highly valued in video games. Kids keep coming back for more. Kids actually learn from it. Information NOT discarded!

The author touts video games and goes on to say, “Schools, meanwhile, respond with more tests, more drills, and more rigidity.” Is it a wonder that so many kids don’t like school, yet so many kids like games? So many kids can drill a topic into their heads, but many, when faced with a slight variation, have no idea what’s going on. With video games, you must wonder what the next boss will do. My friend has a crap cell phone with only one game. I’m forgetting the name, but it’s one where you have a paddle, similar to pong, but you’re hitting it up at bricks on top. Anyway, the game has 3 levels, but once you’ve completed them, the same levels repeat over and over. With no variation. This game is obviously not fun. Not surprisingly, school is often not fun either.

Often in school, there are no alternate solutions to a problem. Open ended video games are becoming increasingly popular. Even with older video games, there were secret areas you could unlock. Ah, the satisfaction of finding a hidden area… there’s nothing like it in school. Creativity should be encouraged in school, not memorization.

“Cognitive scientist Andy diSessa has argued that the best instruction hovers at the boundary of a student’s competence. Most schools, however, seek to avoid invoking feelings of both pleasure and frustration, blind to the fact that these emotions can be extremely useful when it comes to teaching kids,” the article states. Shouldn’t it be intuitive “that the best instruction hovers at the boundary of a student’s competence”? A mind must be exercised, or else it atrophies, just like a muscle. Would a kid learn more if he were taught easier or harder information? Obviously, the student learning more difficult information will learn more than the student learning simple information.

There’s a couple of underlying issues in the incompetency of the current school curricula. One: not using failure as a learning tool. Two: the emphasis on memorization over application. I’m running out of time here, and bleeding into a different topic, so those issues will be discussed tomorrow, with a reprint of the first part of this paragraph.