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New York's Video-Game-Based Public School
An anonymous reader writes "In Manhattan this fall, a batch of lucky sixth-graders will start at Quest To Learn, the first public school in the US with a curriculum built around playing games. They'll play Spore and Civilization, board games such as Settlers of Catan, and learn 3D modeling in Maya and Google Earth as well. Each semester concludes with a two-week 'Boss Level.'"
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has mandated that American medical schools must incorporate training using surgery simulation devices for all aspiring surgeons.
Speaking from personal experience, my vocabulary and spelling skills come almost entirely from video games (MUDs) and books (and not the kind of books they assigned in school).
Not every career involves staring at a monitor day in and day out. Some of us also work in labs and in the field. IMO video games aren't going to prepare kids (6th grade, no less) for the myriad of career parths open to them.
Floating in the black seas of infinity without a paddle.
Although I am not an educator, this discussion is so badly in need of a dose of reality that I feel I must speak up.
I was once asked to sit in on the education division's monthly meeting. The meeting was an eye opener for me. More than being open to the idea of changing how we teach, they were actively pursuing those ideas in live teaching environments. Here's a few of the ideas they were investigating: afterschool club activities, in-class workshops, hands-on activities with real science equipment, personal contact with senior scientists and engineers. Investigation means that they were measuring material cost in dollars and teacher labor in minutes (both prep time and class time). All but one study included a follow up visit 1 year later to collect measurements on how effective the methods were. Many studies tracked students all the way to college; specifically, they tracked whether or not students got a degrees in science and engineering. For the one study that did not have a 1 year follow up the presenter apologized profusely. The field tests spanned the entire US and covered from grade school up to high school.
In short, they were systematic and scientific in their efforts to improve how we teach.
There was too much information at that meeting (and out of my field of expertise) to process but my impression was as follows. Both students and instructors hate rote learning. But, nothing can beat it. Rote learning is incredibly dense, cheap, and scalable. The only technique which comes close is putting kids in a room with a senior scientist and letting them interact together. This method had good multi-year results but doesn't scale up because there just aren't enough scientists. The other methods may be cool and engaging, but they simply don't impart enough knowledge and don't keep kids motivated to stay in science and engineering all the way through college.
The parent poster wrote, "I would kill to be able to go back in time and have an education under people pushing such an enlightened philosophy."
If you consider scientifically investigating teaching methods and measuring their effectiveness with multi-year field studies an enlightened philosophy, then you got your dream education. Use it wisely.
From what I've previously read I think commentators are emphasising the gameplay side of it without really explaining the educational theory underpinning it. The more relevant point - to me - is that traditional subject boundaries are removed allowing a single "lesson" to range widely, while allowing the freedom to zoom in on relevant material. The gaming side of it is just how the teaching content is delivered.
[FUCK BETA]