MacArthur Foundation Series - "Open Forum"
There is an interesting discussion going on over at TLT through the MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. It free to register, so join in and discuss.

Dialogue 2: Gaming Literacies (October 23-27)
“Learning to “read” a game system in order play with it points toward a specific kind of literacy connected, in part, to the ability of a player to understand how systems operate, and how they can, in turn, be transformed.” (from MacArthur forum description)

Ever see a student get frustrated with a database? I see it in every class. Learning to “read” and navigate an online database takes some of the same exploration, testing, and understanding that “reading” a game system does. The challenge is to make that connection in the students’ minds. This discussion is going on right now, so jump in and join James Paul Gee and others.

Dialogue 3: Pathways To Gaming “This dialogue explores the different paths taken by young people, educators, and parents into (and out of) gaming, for there is certainly no single trajectory common to all players. Sometimes they operate as doorways into specific content, offer an introduction to a specific skillset.” (from MacArthur forum description)

This discussion starts next week, so join up now and let’s work together to get students down our path. Information Literacy (or whatever you what to call it), as a skillset, is not that different from gaming strategies. Both require the user to find information (game challenges and exploration), evaluate it (solving in-game puzzles), and know when and how to apply it (mastering a game, advancing a level).

If you are interested in more discussions like this check out my blog “Research Quest” on the links. I'm new here and looking forward to continuning this discussion in future posts.