Educational Gaming

This video puts forth some pretty powerful ideas in term of how video games are very effective motivation tools.  I keep thinking about him talking about how games sometime reward effort and give feedback.  These are two things that I think are very important in the learning effort to keep students motivated.  The most powerful thing that he talked about was that games allow us to take risks that we might not normally take.  Taking risks is a very powerful tool in the learning process.  We often learn more from our mistakes than from our triumphs.  I truly feel that part of the future of education is dependent upon the creation of simulations or games that can model real life situations.  Instead of just having a student answer a question from a math or science textbook we will have the student experience where they would have to use the knowledge or skill in really life.  Instead of just reading about history or about literary great we would have the student interact with the people or live though the historical events.  I think when we can begin learn to harness the power of video games in education, we will begin to see the future of education.