Are Video Games the Future of Education?

VIDEO GAMES IN EDUCATION Are Video Games the Future of Education? YOUR NAME HERE University of South Dakota Are Video Games the Future of Education? Synopsis Old school methods of teaching have become known as “chalk and talk” where a teacher stands in front of the chalkboard and lectures the whole period with limited time at the end of class to discuss what the students have learned. Some of these methods have become obsolete with new computer-based technology changing the educational scene continuosly yet some methods are so far kept intact. Every classroom schedule has set aside time of each day for the basic areas of study but with the thought of a new way for kids to learn maybe this too may eventually become obsolete. Katie Salen, a games designer and a professor of design and tecnology at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, hopes to change the entire way society believes education should be taught by completely abandoning this traditional philosophy. This is why she is one of the primary promoters for a new program, Quest to Learn, which is a freshly built taxpayer-funded school in New York. The Anonymous author indicated that “Instead of chalk and talk, children learn by doing--and do so in a way that tears up the usual subject-based curriculum altogether.” Quest to Learn’s school day will consist of four 90-minute intervals devoted to “domains” which the Anonymous author says “include(s) Codeworlds (a combination of mathematics and English), Being, Space and Place (English and social studies), The Way Things Work (math and science) and Sports for the Mind (game design and digital literacy). Each domain concludes with a two-week examination called a "Boss Level"” (Anonymous, 2009) The school plans to admit students between the age of 12 and 18 so nobody knows for sure exactly how this experiement of sorts will turn out because the first class will not be over until 2016. The Anonymous author claims: “If it fails,

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