A presentation designed to acquaint educators with the nature and culture of the video game experience -- especially in the context of the learning opportunities that come from understanding this experience.

1. Video Games
as Learning
Men do not quit playing
because they grow old;
they grow old because
Engines
they quit playing.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

2. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

3. http://landmark-project.com/
Session Tags: redefine
literacy
warlick
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

4. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
You can also get to the online handouts by visiting my office in SecondLife -- http://
landmark-project.com/sl/

5. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
This is my avatar in SecondLife, Suriwang Dapto.

6. New
Networked
Information
Students
Landscape
Three
Disruptive &
Unpredictable
Converging
Future
Conditions
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Each of these disruptive conditions has profound implications on what and how we teach our
students. It’s all new to us.

7. What is a Video Game?
“..exceptionally
tasty patterns
of reality”
Glenn Wiebe
Social Studies Consultant
ESSDACK
Hutchinson, KS
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

8. Games
consist David Williamson Shaffer
of Epistemic Games
Building the Future of Education
➡ Roles University of Wisconsin, Madison
➡Rules
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
After factoring all of the characters of video games down to the essentials, researcher, David
Shaffer, says that you are left with Roles and Rules. This is what video games are about: roles
and rules.

9. It Ain’t Your Daddy’s
Video Game!
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Then > Pong

10. It Ain’t Your Daddy’s
Video Game!
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Now > Not just game, but culture.

11. As a Technology,
Video Games are Unique?
“They’ve not
gotten simpler
– They have
Glenn Wiebe
become more Social Studies Consultant
ESSDACK
complex” Hutchinson, KS
Because the brain
demands it!
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

12. Workforce Readiness
Casner-Lotto, Jill. quot;Are They Really Ready to Work?.quot; The Partenership for 21st Century Skills. 2006. The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working
Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, & Society for Human Resource Management. 19 May 2008 <www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/
FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
This is what business and industry looks for in employees, the skills that lead to success.
Notice that professionalism, teamwork, oral communications, and ethics are listed more often
than reading and English usage for workers just out of high school.

13. Workforce Readiness
Casner-Lotto, Jill. quot;Are They Really Ready to Work?.quot; The Partenership for 21st Century Skills. 2006. The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working
Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, & Society for Human Resource Management. 19 May 2008 <www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/
FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Similar findings for graduates of two-year institutions.

14. Workforce Readiness
Casner-Lotto, Jill. quot;Are They Really Ready to Work?.quot; The Partenership for 21st Century Skills. 2006. The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working
Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, & Society for Human Resource Management. 19 May 2008 <www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/
FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Similar again for four-year colleges.

15. Workforce Readiness
McLester, Susan & Todd McIntire. quot;The Workforce Readiness Crisis.quot; Technology & Learning Magazine 15 Nov 2006 19 May 2008
<http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=193700630>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Notice that of the listed skills, none are found to be exceptional in high school graduates.
For two-year and four-year education institutions, it is better.

16. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Roller Coaster Tycoon is an example of a work-style video game. You’re building and
running an amusement part. You’re running a business.

17. • Got Game by John Beck & Mitchell Wade
• The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer
Generation is Changing the Workplace by John
Beck & Mitchell Wade
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us about
Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee
• Don’t Bother Me Mom--I’m Learning! by Marc
Prensky
• How Computer Games Help Children Learn
by David Williamson Shaffer
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Just a few of the recent writings on video games and learning.

18. • Competitive
• Risk Taking
• Sociable
• Believe in the
role of luck
• Self-confident
Beck, John. quot;Tech Nation.quot; [Podcast Entry] ITConversations. 15 Mar 2005. ITConversations. 25 Nov 2006 <http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail436.html>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
What about the skills and habits of the video game generation. “Got Game” conducted an
extensive survey of the video game generation.

19. Teacher as
Strategy
Guide
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
The boss (level boss) in video games is the monster at the end of the level that you have to
get through to reach the next level. So what does a teacher, who acts like a boss look like to
students -- a barrier. What if we acted more like strategy guides?

20. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

21. Serious Games
http://www.food-force.com/
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Some Serious Games: Food-Force (food-force.com) and Peacemaker (peacemaker.com).

22. What does this mean?
• I have to power down
when I go to school
-- A High School Student
• Why do I have to learn about
Caesar? Hell, I’m building
Rome every afternoon!
-- Another High School Student
Prensky, Marc. “Engage Me or Enrage Me.” New Directions Technology Conference.
Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC. 18 Aug 2005.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
It means that we should invite into our classrooms conversations about our students’ video
game and other interactive outside-the-classroom information experiences.

23. Video Game Culture:
Urban Games
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Think about expanding the video game experience, using your community as the platform.

24. Video Game Culture:
Urban Games
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

25. Video Game Culture:
Playing the Information
Elonka Dunin
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
She compares here duties as a volunteer Wikipedia Editor to playing a video game.

26. Video Game Culture:
Playing the Information
Playing the
Internet --
Research as
video game
http://passivelymultiplayer.com/
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
He turns web research into an exciting game of cat and mouse.

27. Video Game Culture:
Cheating
Deborah Fields
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
She has researched the nature of video game cheating, and concluded that we may need
more than one word for cheating.

28. David Warlick
The Landmark Project
David Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Machinima is the remixing of video game performance, audio, and any other digital content
you can put together with iMovie or MovieMaker.

29. Machinima: a collection of associated production techniques
whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered
using real-time, interactive 3-D engines, such as
those of games, instead of professional 3D animation
software. [Wikipedia]
We see
information as a
product
They see
information as a raw
material
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

30. Making Games
Lucas Gillispie, Educator in Pender County, NC,
developed this game using Active Worlds
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
More schools are now starting to teach video game development for a number of reasons,
including history, science, and health.

31. Games
consist David Williamson Shaffer
of Epistemic Games
Building the Future of Education
➡ Roles University of Wisconsin, Madison
➡Rules
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

32. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

33. David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
It’s about identifying the fundamental qualities of the video game experience and integrating
those into the classroom, not necessarily the games.

34. An Intrinsic Need to...
• Work in responsive • As questions
information
environments • Illustrate
accomplishment
• Communicate
• Invest themselves
• Share personal
experience & identity • Safely make mistakes
• Form & participate in • Earn audience &
communities attention
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
This is important. This is where energy comes from when we can no longer depend on
gravity to drive learning.

35. Places to Watch
• Education Arcade @ MIT
http://educationarcade.org/
• Serious Games
http://seriousgames.org/
• Games + Learning + Society
http://website.education.wisc.edu/gls/
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

36. Getting Started
• Start a gaming club in your school.
• Your students are a huge enthusiastic resource...allow
them to talk about it and to teach you.
• Connect with the serious game effort
http://seriousgames.org/
• Recruit the Digital Natives in your faculty
• Pay attention to the Key Players
Pay attention to your players..
Sams, Bill. “Games, Multi-Player Environments, Immersive Reality: virtual Worlds
& Avatars: What does it mean for learning?” TeachU. Jan 2006.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/

37. Media thatʼs targeted at you,
but doesnʼt include you,
may not be worth sitting still for.
-- Clay Shirky, Web 2.0 Expo 2008
Shirky, Clay. quot;Gin, Television, and Social Surplus.quot; Here Comes Everybody. 26 Apr 2008.
20 May 2008 <http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html>.
David Warlick
The Landmark Project
David Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/
Raleigh, NC http://landmark-project.com/sl/
Rooting around in the wires behind the family TV, the four-year-old finally says, I’m looking
for the mouse. Not interested in who’s behind the curtain. She wants to take over.