Thing 22 - Gaming

How might we adapt our instructional material to better engage digital natives?

I have found this a really interesting area and have done a little more reading on it - enough to know that there is a lot yet for me to know! But some of the points that I have picked up on so far include:

From: Engaging Digital Natives http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/engaging-digital-natives accessed 19/12/2008

* used to receiving information really fast
* parallel processing & multi-tasking
* prefer graphics before text
* work best in networks
* instant gratification & frequent rewards
* prefer 'games' to 'work'


From Van Eck, Richard. Digital Game-Based Learning: It's Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless in EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 41, no. 2 (March/April 2006): 16–30.

* require multiple streams of information,
* prefer inductive reasoning,
* want frequent and quick interactions with content, and
* have exceptional visual literacy skills

Must be engaged to retain information

” For gamers, learning “is consumed in very small bits exactly when the learner wants, which is usually just before the skill is needed” (Beck & Wade 2004b, 159)
Beck, John C., and Mitchell Wade. 2004b. in Got game: How the gamer generation is reshaping business forever. Boston: Harvard Business School.

* risk taking,
* data immersion, and
* trial and error

"It’s a rapid cycle of hypothesis, experiment, and analysis. And it’s a fundamentally different take on problem-solving than the linear, read-the-manual-first approach of their parents” (2006, 111). Wright, Will. 2006. Dream machines. Wired 14 (4): 110-112.

Basically, they don't want huge screeds of information that they think may or may not be of use to them in the future - they want shortcuts for things they are already using, and the ability to quickly find the exact answer to their exact query - at the point they have it.
So, rather than some of the more traditional lecture type situations, hands on involvement (preferably in a fun format) and comprehensive searchable material (that covers all possibilities) for later reference seem to be more appropriate to their learning style. Still thinking on this & it's implications - obviously we're already part way there (at least in what we attempt), but some of the preparation could be hugely time consuming (some examples of educational games required huge dollars as well). Hmmm...