1. What resources did I share this week? I shared my gamer interviews, as well as some pretty good resources on perspectives in gaming in education - including one more from one of my favorites, Seymour Papert. I also shared plenty of (probably unsolicited) opinions of my own about games thinking, student-driven curriculum, collaboration, and leadership. I guess I was feeling more opinionated than usual this week.
2. What did I intend to be the impact of my resources on others' learning? I hoped to get across the idea that not all games are created equal. Carse's thinking on this in his book Finite and Infinite Games really nails the difference. Even as sophisticated and engaging as most games are today, I really don't think all produce the same levels of thinking that we know are most beneficial in real life. It's the infinite games, those that allow the user to create their own environments and challenges, and to work with groups to enrich the process that are really the gems in the bunch. I hope I communicated my thoughts on that.
3. What actual impact could I discern? I think people are interested in the Minecraft phenomenon - expect to see lots of Minecraft sessions at ASTE this year! I think teachers specifically are interested in how this could potentially impact education, because there is definitely something worthwhile going on there. The comments on my post all echoed this idea.
4. What will I do differently next week? Since I have had a little more time this weekend (other class finished, class I'm teaching finished, son gone on basketball trip), I took more time to respond to comments on my own blog - something I'm not always good about. I know that engaging in a conversation that I started is really beneficial, and it feels good to get back into those discussions. I'm definitely going to continue to do that, not only on my own blog, but others' as well - so look out everyone - I'm feelin' chatty!
5. What resources did others share that made a difference to my learning? Amber shared a good article about a guy who explained some of the leadership skills he got from playing games (pointing out that we may not only be talking about computer games here - good to remember). That was an interesting perspective because he talked about personal skills, like prioritizing and focusing, but those translate into good leadership skills as well. Leadership is about more than the ability to simply motivate a group. Also, everyone's interviews with gamers were interesting too - I saw some similarities with my own interviews, and also some responses that made me think about other ways my students game. Barbra got me to thinking about how gaming skills translate. I could think of some definite ways, but also that there is a difference between the types of games and the skills they teach - they don't all translate into valuable thinking skills outside of the game environment. Infinite games seem to have a higher degree of transferable skills than finite ones do.
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