“Let’s Get Serious: Should Video Games Replace College?”
Hmm… Sorry Link and Dee, I think I disagree.
A more apt title for this panel should have been
“Let’s Get Serious: Should We Be Investing More Resources into Video Games Than Teachers?”
On the video games for education panel Aliza Gold, Coordinator of the Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) in the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin stated “we wouldn’t really be talking about it if school was doing well.”
On the side of teachers we have one of the few critically thinking audience members asking “Is it worth investing the money into to educational video games when teachers are being underpaid across the board?”
On damage control for the panel we have Michael Anderson who leads the Course Technology team for the UT System TeleCampus stating (summarized) “Part of the educational game’s purpose is to go globally and it would be optimal if less were spent on bombing and more on education.”
So… albeit an exciting new use of a young medium, I think we have more pressing problems in the educational system than adapting video games for learning.
Although some say video games could be part of the solution to the educational system, I see it as more as a creative addition that could be investigated once the more pressing issues have been addressed.
Chris Troutman
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but if video games could be another tool for teachers, then it would be worth it – I agree they should get paid more, but I am not sure that should be at the expense of the children whose only opportunity to use technology is at school.