I had the pleasure of sitting in on a couple sessions led by David Warlick this week at the Fall TECSIG conference. TECSIG is the technology coordinators special interest group for the Texas Computer Education Association. I led a session on educational gaming a couple years back, and was interested in hearing what Warlick was going to say on the topic.
As tech directors around Texas streamed into Austin, my good friend Tim Holt, Director of Instructional Technology for El Paso ISD and current President of TECSIG, joked that the majority were showing up to listen to his presentations. In reality, he continued, many registered for the conference to see David Warlick. In the past we were surveyed as to who we’d like to see as a keynote, and Warlick topped the list.
Warlick’s keynote session over lunch focused on “cracking the digital native experience [so that] we can hack the digital native experience.” He gave several examples how students learn, even hearkening back to his personal experiences during high school industrial arts class. The teacher at that time served as consultant, helping students ask the right questions and come to the right conclusions. But the students did the work, spending class time to create something, whether a bookcase or some other project.
Today, technology should be taught in the same way, Warlick asserted. Students should create something. They learn by asking questions. During the keynote, he played a trailer for Assassin’s Creed 2, and noted the game is not designed to be learned by reading the instructions. Like many games, players start playing to learn how to accomplish goals within the game.
Later in the day during his gaming presentation, Warlick noted there are generally two types of presenters on the subject: those in their twenties who are strong hard core players, and those in their fifties who are interested in gaming, feel video games are useful for education, but are not hard core players themselves. He humbly stated he fell in the latter camp. I thought he did a fine job of introducing the crowd to some of the literature and research out there on the topic. He showed off Scratch in his keynote, but during the gaming session he also introduced the crowd to Phunland.com, a “2D physics sandbox.” I noticed at least one in attendance playing on the site on their laptop.
Warlick rounded out the presentation with a brief intro of ARGs, machinima, and serious games. He offered some suggestions for teachers and administrators interested in investigating further, and showed off some student work in the field. He makes this presentation often throughout the country, and you can find his notes on the topic here.
