Double Entry Journal 12

The main argument the author makes in chapter 5 is that video games incorporate good learning principles. The author also argues that video games do better with the learning principles than current schools. The author struggled to learn to play Warcraft III because the game did not motivate him to take the time necessary to learn the game. He states that before learning principles the game has to motivate you for an extended engagement. He also notes that in a school setting his experience with Warcraft III would have been simply seen as a failure. One learning experience that is good for "at risk" students is what the author calls horizontal learning which allows students to get their feet wet and when ready move into vertical learning. The author states that the schools view on "at risk" learning is to dumb down the curriculum to try to help, where instead it could be looked at as a learning experience to help them in the future. If schools could create the motivation for extended engagement like a game can, then learning would increase. When it comes to assessing in schools it is often looked at as you pass or fail while in games you are assessed and put in the proper skill level where it will be just challenging enough.The fish tank is when a game, RoN in this case, first begins by providing the player with choice from the beginning and no matter what choice you make it allows you to learn the basic skills to start playing the game and learning from playing. A sand box tutorial is one that is supervised but the environment is there for you to explore but the environment does not need to be as clean and planned as that of a fish tank. A genre is a certain type of something, for instance if I say I am playing a video game I could be playing a number of different types of games and Genre is used to classify each game. The skills tests in games are used as a development tool which ,according to the author,usually is not the case in school. RoN allows collaboration learning by allowing players of the game to engage in competition and you learn from those who have beaten you, and you can see the strategies they used compared to your own and simply learn from the experience.