Two Shameless Video Games in Education Plugs

All of you that know me know that I am an avid believer in the discussion that video games are more important in learning than most teachers think. The discussion is still in it's data-collection phase and the verdict isn't out yet, but there are plenty of debates in the field taking place and I always like to point out the successes when I see it.

First, John D. Sutter over at CNN wrote a great post over on the "What's Next" blog for innovation.  He cites two examples of how video games and video game theory are giving scientists the ability to "crowdsource" gamers and use that energy to help solve epic scientific puzzles like "protein folding".  A Canegie Mellon computer scientist is developing these puzzles into a game format where gamers can generate discoveries scientists might ever have imagined.



Next plug is from this TEDTalk that Sutter posted about on the same blog.  12-year-old Thomas Suarez's TEDTalk about kids and not just wanting to play games, but also make them is an inspiring clip.  Very cool stuff!

In my building, since the purchase of the interactive projectors, teachers are beginning to shift their thinking on how they are using technology to enhance core standards.  It is refreshing to see this development of how we can best get students thinking about these concepts and how teachers are pushing their own comfort levels in technology concepts to provide students with a variety of learning opportunities.  I wish, however, that the conversation starts to begin discussing some of these videos and articles and opens up a process for evaluating our pedagogical procedures and how we can use student-centered tasks and project-based learning procedures to enhance learning.