Jane McGonigal and "The Institute For the Future"

I am going to be honest, I was so intrigued by Jane McGonigal’s message about the virtues rather than waste of time by gamers that I went online to see more about her and her mission. She is serious. She wants to change the world using gamers as a human resource which really isn’t a new concept, humans have been used as a resource for centuries both physically and mentally. Her message is laid out so eloquently that the listener wants to dive right in and become a gamer too. I can see why she is so good at game creation. Her message includes all the things we as teachers want for our students in the classroom. Her four attributes of the gamer that help them become “virtuosos” such as urgent optimism, creators of trustful social fabric, blissful productivity users, and collaborators of epic meaning are just what the education professionals want for 21^st Century classrooms. How could a good all American worker not come from this possible type of learning environment? This new approach could catch many students that may otherwise be lost to traditional education methods. All of our efforts, like any other trend in education, should not be dominated by making the use of games the primary method of presentation of instruction. But if given the ability to incorporate trust, collaboration, challenges that inspire us, and feedback that pushes us to achieve more, I will take the opportunity. Simple point and click games have been in education for decades but the extreme entertainment of television and Xbox has driven these educational games into extinction. I do invite the readers of this blog to check out other videos by Jane McGonigal, she has more to offer than what is mentioned in the video. She has personal life experiences that is the driving force of some of her games. Check out the game “SuperBetter” online. In conclusion, I really think the aspects of gaming that may be detrimental to the education process should be discussed. These include such items as addition to games, the idea of wasting time, and what knowledge is really being transferred to the student? Any new idea has its drawbacks, that is life, but we cannot waste time in education! Time ticks by whether we use it for good or evil. If students become addicted to learning by the use of gaming, then isn’t that time well spent? When educational psychologists become involved in the initial creation of games for education patterned with and by the business sector game inventors, then out of this collaboration virtual service learning can begin.