LINK: “Will Gaming Save Education, or Just a Waste of Time?” by Dian Schaffhauser (August, 2013)
In keeping with the tradition of piggy-backing off of themes set by Seth, this week’s linkbait offers up an article written by Dian Schaffhauser for T.H.E. Journal, a magazine covering educational technology for the last 40 years. Setting aside the problematic title (a perfect example of the False Dichotomies fallacy) and the occasional slip of tone (the author assures their readers that an educator who also happens to be a gamer “resides in the real world”), this article does a great job of introducing readers to the ideas and goals of those who are currently grappling with gaming and education. Its inclusion of a short box describing the difference between adapting “gaming” to the classroom and “gamification” is especially enlightening, as short as it is. This is a difference that often gets lost in most discussions of the topic, and may serve as a good starting point for anyone thinking of delving into the literature that is currently growing around implementing games and their ideas into the classroom.
