I am hard pressed to recall a time in my life when a video game system was not present in my domicile. While strictly regulated by my mother in my youth, the original Nintendo was a favorite past time in our home (until my little brother took it apart and could not successfully put it back together. Now he is an engineer...figures)
If I can't remember a time without video games, surely the current generation of kids I teach do not know life without them. They all know the basic idea - gain points or coins or whatever, level up, earn rewards, find "secrets" hidden in the game, beat the boss at the end. And while you might run out of lives, it is never really game over. You get to keep trying and playing until you win.
Can these same principles be applied in the classroom? Students already "gain points" and earn "rewards" and if you think about a test as being the boss at the end of a concept, we really aren't that far off. But the "keep trying until you win" idea isn't quite there, and I think it should be.
The concept of mastery to educators is the idea that students have to really get the current concept before moving on to the next one. To a gamer, mastery is the idea of going beyond survival and conquering a list of specific goals. Think Angry Birds for a minute: its possible to clear a level with a one or two stars rating - you can move on to the the next level but you don't!
You go back and hone your bird flinging skills until you get all three stars!!
Going back and practicing until its perfect is a time honored strategy. So here is my hypothesis: if I let students who do not "clear a level" in class go back and try again until they get it right, then they will master the concept.
Doesn't seem like such a bad strategy.
Gabe Zichermann says it even better than me. Check out the video below for a more eloquent explanation.
If I can't remember a time without video games, surely the current generation of kids I teach do not know life without them. They all know the basic idea - gain points or coins or whatever, level up, earn rewards, find "secrets" hidden in the game, beat the boss at the end. And while you might run out of lives, it is never really game over. You get to keep trying and playing until you win.
Can these same principles be applied in the classroom? Students already "gain points" and earn "rewards" and if you think about a test as being the boss at the end of a concept, we really aren't that far off. But the "keep trying until you win" idea isn't quite there, and I think it should be.
The concept of mastery to educators is the idea that students have to really get the current concept before moving on to the next one. To a gamer, mastery is the idea of going beyond survival and conquering a list of specific goals. Think Angry Birds for a minute: its possible to clear a level with a one or two stars rating - you can move on to the the next level but you don't!
You go back and hone your bird flinging skills until you get all three stars!!
Going back and practicing until its perfect is a time honored strategy. So here is my hypothesis: if I let students who do not "clear a level" in class go back and try again until they get it right, then they will master the concept.
Doesn't seem like such a bad strategy.
Gabe Zichermann says it even better than me. Check out the video below for a more eloquent explanation.