Below is a gripping 7 minute video in which Katie Salen, design director of the Quest to Learn school in New York. Full of choice quotes about why game design is such a powerful medium for learning, for example: "To design a game you have to really know what you are talking about in order to create a system that models that idea."
The video is one of many on the Intel-sponsored Big Think, amongst which is this talk by Leonard Kleinrock about the invention of the internet protocol. This struck a very strong cord with me having as a child gone through the make-your-own-crystal-set-from-bits-around-the-house stage, including the visit to an electronics shop to buy a variable capacitor, as described by Kleinrock. There is a connection between the two videos in that people of my generation had many opportunities to tinker - in the 1950s to 1970s, and to learn a lot of science and maths from this. Today the scope to tinker with technical objects is more limited because they tend to be much more "sealed". Is a games based curriculum a modern equivalent of the home made tinkering curriculum of old?
Comments