A couple of years ago, my sons made some new friends. After picking them up from a play date, they told me that their new friend, Stephen, had a diamond pickax. I was a little surprised by that and commented that it surely must be pretend. They told me that, no, it was a real diamond pickax. I then asked exactly what that meant, and said that there must be diamonds on the handle. They told me that the pickax wasn't made of diamonds, but was used to mine diamonds. Incredulously, I asked why a 10 year old would have a real ax and why they would need one for mining. Exasperated, my 8 year old said, "Mom, it's for Minecraft."
Oh, Minecraft.
Yes, at this point I had been hearing many strange conversations that did not make sense to me from my boys and their friends. These conversations took place while they were using their tablets, when they were in the back of the car after school, while they were on the basketball court. Many months went by before I finally caught on that Minecraft was the subject of all of their conversations.
As a parent and a teacher, I have had many, many conversations about the impact of current digital technologies, including the many apps and games that children play. However, despite some of my concerns, I have had something of a deterministic point of view. The use of these devices and the gaming that goes along with them seems inevitable.
Several of the articles I read for this week are related to gamification. I think it's an exceptional idea for libraries to include gaming as part of their content. One of the articles from NPR talked with several libraries which claimed to have seen an increase in their circulation since they have incorporated on-site gaming. There are many people who, because of the Digital Divide, do not have consistent or quality access to the internet. That libraries can offer that aspect to them is laudable. Some opponents of using libraries for gaming claim that libraries should not be treated as community centers and that they should be places for intellectual/scholarly pursuits. I find this notion preposterous. My own public library offered a free class on wreath-making this past weekend. Is that an intellectual pursuit? No, but, for some, it's a valuable one. If libraries have to claim an intellectual or scholarly pursuit, then much of the books, fiction and non-fiction alike, along with videos, music and games would have to be removed from the library.
As for gamification in school, I love the sound of figuring out how to use games in a real context in a school environment. I am on the same page, however, as Joey Lee and Jessica Hammer from Teachers College Columbia University who say, "[we] must know what problems we are trying to fix, design systems that fix those specific problems, develop ways of evaluating whether those fixes work, and sustain those fixes over time," in their article, "Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother?" We cannot simply start adding new technologies into classrooms without understanding what we're doing and why. As it is, many studies have found that many educators are being required to add technology components to their classrooms, yet don't have the knowledge or experience to teach using those technologies, or troubleshoot them.
Additionally, I think that we are making a huge mistake as a culture when we try and frame all aspects of life through a single lens -- that of technology. There are many valuable things that students learn in school, and I don't think we should replace them all with technology-driven curriculum. I do think that educators do need to constantly look at what they are teaching and why, and revise their practices to meet the goals, standards and needs of the students they teach.
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