Integrating games into education

The idea of games behind educational is something that has been around for awhile. I am not saying anything new when I say that games should be integrated to education to make learning come 'alive'. However, the Internet has created a new gaming environment in the past decade. With more users playing a specific game, millions of game results have been created. These results let game creators develop a balanced game environment. Isn't that similar to what educators do? Educators learn the needs of society and create a simulated environment for students to learn knowledge and rules to be productive members of society?

I recently read an article about Farmville being an educational tool. I am not sure about its social values but players find out the basics around farming and how to raise crops and animals to bring in revenue to continue the cycle over again. Players will not become real farmers from this experience, but they will gain a simulated experience on what knowledge is necessary to take care of a real one.

Dangers: Simulation games like Farmville, SimCity, and the Tycoon series will give players a false sense of accomplishment. I think sim-players psychological believe they can be expert from playing those games. Well... can they? What is the difference between players taking real actions in a computer-simulated environment and roleplaying in a real-world environment? If the gap between reality and the virtual world gets smaller, are real teachers going to get replaced by virtual sages-on-the-side?

Is computer/information technology changing knowledge?

It is said that Socrates did not write because he believed in the superiority of argument over writing. However, his students went on to document his thoughts in writing so that generations for scholars to debate and develop new ideas. Their disobedience allowed humankind to understand how people think, learn, debate, etc.

Jumping years to today's age of information technology, people are using ask.com, google, youtube and other Internet tools to learn new ideas. There is a wealth of information created by all sorts of people around the world on the Internet. People can learn to cook, fix cars, exercise and other complex tasks in a very short time. I remember when I would spend days in the library finding the same information from books. Those days are no more except for studying for a test.

The question in my mind is what kind of mindset and motivation do students need to navigate such a massive amount of information at their fingertips? The book, Sabertooth curriculum says to raise individual that know what the community needs and has the will and energy to do it. Additionally, my graduate program emphasizes activities for students to know how to search, sort, create, and communicate. Finally, John Naisbitt says "we're drowning in information and starving for knowledge"

My immediate answer is yes, technology is changing knowledge so that there is a general consensus. However, people do not know how to tap into this knowledge even if if was packed, signed, and delivered to their doorsteps.

Vygotsky explains people's learning behavior best when he says that people will not truly learn and understand until they are ready. (You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink it.)

Is the World Flat?

I purchased The World Is Flat 3.0 edition by Thomas Friedman over the weekend and read the first two chapter in about 3 hours. The original book was written in 2005 and the author has extended its content quite a bit over the years. I believe there is a second and bigger book after this one. There are over 600 pages of trend-tracking and stories about how the world looks like in the 21st century.

In this book, Friedman explains how technology has leveled the "playing field" for individuals, countries, and anybody willing to make a change including terrorists. Information, processes, and services can be diced and sliced, packaged, and be meaningful to everybody. For example, services like haircuts and food preparation is still a local activity. However, taking orders, billing, budgeting and other menial tasks can be automated with software and cheaply organized elsewhere to reduce overhead cost.

Another view is transportation. In the past, people have taken days to travel from point A to point B. With the advent of faster and safer transportation, goods and people have been able to move anywhere around the world for the right price. The electronic communication age e.g. telephone, fax, Internet opened the flood gates so that everybody can create their own wealth.

I will continue to read the book over the next couple days and develop my ideas. Additional, I was asked to think how to world is not flat. What is an alternative explanation/view to a flat world? Is this a permanent paradigm shift in the 21st century? Or is this a natural step in human history? Can people predict where technology is going? i.e. printing press, telegraph, telephone, Internet, world wide wide, next?

Thinking about blogs and wikis (part 1)

As I think about the effects of blogs and wikis in the classroom and on k-12 education, I think back to its purposes. Blogs are about me and my ideas. Wikis are about us and our ideas. Each of these two electronic writing tools has its original purposes deeply grounded in traditional communication mediums - diaries and newspapers.

Traditionally and in a short summary, writers would write and immortalize their thoughts into words on paper. The papers could get lost, or become published. If it get published, there will be feedback such as discussions, revisions, etc which translates into more writings. This is my understanding of the traditional communication cycle with writing. However as everybody is beginning to find out, the concepts of blogs and wikis has changed the 'feedback' part of the cycle especially the speed.

Communication has always been about sharing information. However sharing takes a lot of time if we used non-electronic mediums to transfer information. Using electronics, people can now share information almost instantly! But what does this newfound speed mean?

How do people place value on information when information is non-stop? Is there a standard value system for information?

John Naisbitt says that we are "drowning in information and starving for knowledge". He is correct! Most people have no clue what to do with all the information they see.

Blogs allow us to create electronic talking spaces. Wikis bring people together to negotiate on an idea. Assuming everybody in the whole world responds to a posting or contributes to a wiki. How all their responses help move that person towards their goals? Ah yes, personal goals!!!...

Technology-literacy-innovation cycle

An issue that is constantly on my mind is how the idea of technology has somehow become synonymous with computers. People equate putting in hours on sitting in front of TVs, typing on computers, playing with electronic devices as becoming technology literate. At some point in recent history, there was a paradigm shift in which people believe technology is a product of computers.

A part of me understands that this phenomenon likens to the early fire-tamers. Some curious caveman figured out he could harness wild fire and carry it around on a stick! Through that magical fire branch, he would have advantages over nature. There would be night lighting, animal-warding, cooking, heating, and other fire related technology gradually available.

So what happened to the cavemen after the discovery and mastery of fire? Well, we can read the history books about that time line.

But what about the current technology literate generation? What will this group of folks do with their time in front of TVs, on computers, using with electronic devices?

In the beginning...

There was no technology. At some point, humans started to get "ah-ha" moments. Rocks become flints, building materials, and arrow heads. Wood became spears, clubs, fire wood. Slowly but surely, more and more tools and technologies came into existence.

Somewhere on that time line, I came into existence. People know me as Chu. It means bamboo in Chinese, kiss in Japanese and, my whole first name means resume (CV) in Korean. That's enough about me for now. I'll put everything else in About Me.

In my short lifetime, I've been playing with electronics and circuitry. My current interest is in information technology, simulations, and robotics.