games for learning by Vic Jaras

GAMES FOR LEARNING

-The "factory model" for education treats individual human beings like parts on an assembly line. Is it any wonder that millions of high school students "vote with their feet" by leaving institutions that have failed to make learning meaningful and relevant to the real world? Good teachers inspire kids and cultivate imaginations with activities that make learning fun.

It behooves us to return to fundamentals that have worked for thousands of years to teach people concepts and skills.

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."
—Socrates, the teacher of Plato who developed a method of questioning that we know as Inquiry.

“Nothing that is learned under compulsion stays with the mind. . .

..Do not, then, my friend, keep children to their studies by compulsion
but by play.”

-Plato: Collected Dialogs, The Republic, Book VII, 536e, (New York, Pantheon Books, 1961):

When children "play" they engage in a simulation of the world around them to help them aquire knowledge.

Projects are constructivist in nature, based on the apprenticeship model of instruction that has served us well for thousands of years where people learn through practice, development of skills until they can apply their skills independently. Today, one of the fastest growing job markets is the simulation/game industry.

Astronaunts spend hundreds of hours in "simulators" playing games that exactly simulate the real space shuttle and various tools that are used in space. Doctors now practice complicated procedures with simulators. Science, Business, Industry and the Military all use game simulations to provide practice and build skills with a wide variety of applications.

GAME SITES & ONLINE GAMES TO EXPLORE: