Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

11.8.06 | I am not only a shameless advocate of games in all forms—digital, non-digital, organic or otherwise—but an author and designer interested in understanding why games have gotten such a bad rap, and what we can do to improve their standing by showing how and why games matter to our kids and to the future of learning. This task isn’t easy, as the issues surrounding games and learning are complex and varied, but I believe we are up for what is a necessary and important challenge. I wouldn’t have agreed to take on the editorship of a MacArthur volume on the topic if I didn’t!

DRAWING ON PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Over the past several weeks I have been running a series of moderated online public discussions aimed at helping to set an agenda for work that needs to be done in order to educate and innovate at the intersection of games and learning. Many, many voices were heard, among them those of Justin Hall, Amit Pitaru, and Craig Watkins, who will be contributing Spotlight posts this week.

While each contributor comes from a different disciplinary space—Justin literally grew up in the blogosphere, Amit is a game designer and artist, and Craig an academic heavily invested in understanding the history of media—each believes, as I do, that games have the potential to change the way we think and learn and recreate and engage in the world at large. Their posts touch on their hopes for the future, criticisms of past practices, and visions of access and inclusion for all who wish to game. Simply the tip of a very large iceberg, I hope their words will serve to peak your interest and draw you into the space of possibility that lies within the ecology of games.

(Check back at the bottom of this post later in the week as Justin, Amit and Craig’s entries come in.)