SPOILER: Empower learners with good problems that reveal systems

Professor James Paul Gee is a Learning Theorist who looks at the good learning that can happen in video games. In the video series that we’ll be looking at here, he discusses thirteen principles of good learning that can happen in the domain of video games. As you watch, consider how these thirteen principles can occur in other domains of learning (such as Canvas or your learning management system of choice). How can the teaching and learning that you are involved in integrate these principles?

After each video, you’ll have the opportunity to take a knowledge-check quiz. Quite honestly, these knowledge-check quizzes go against much of what Gee advocates for — but hey, this whole book is merely content for an experimental foray into Pressbooks, so we’re playing with the tools we have. Can it be better? Yes. I challenge you to tell me in comments how to make it better. In the meantime, I’m afraid you’ll need to suffer through….

Perhaps you’ve been in a course that was “on rails” — everything was scripted and rehearsed to fill the allotted time. There was no opportunity for questions; you’re job as a learner was simply to listen and watch, and perhaps take notes to be regurgitated later in a high-stakes exam. Gee calls for a different learning environment, where learners feel empowered and able to work through problems to understand the systems beneath them.