Gaming, Deep Learning, and Transfer | W10 Q2 | Discussion

The question that seems to be addressed in the readings is, “Do games help individuals learn better?”. With that question in mind, Salomon and Perkins (2013) state that technology can impact education in 3 ways: effects with, effects of, and effects through technology.

First, it is important to establish what learning is, and how we know if an individual gets better at it. Using the definition given by Gee (2008) that learning is when, “…people learn from experiences stored in long-term memory.”, then deep learning experiences are needed to enhance learning. Games, themselves can not make individuals learn better, but it is the interaction of the individuals with gaming environments that allows games to enhance learning. As a user is interacting with a gaming environment the user is experiencing effects with games. The game is providing an environment which allows the user to experience distributed intelligence, cross-functional teams, emotion, and motivation in a world which mixes these elements of deep learning in an intoxicating and effective cocktail (Gee, 2008). Effects of games would allow the transfer of learning experiencing in game to be utilized in the wider world. Stevens et al. (2008) investigate the effect of transfer between games and other situations. While the exact way in which games impact individuals’ lives outside of games remains elusive, it is true that in-game lives mix with experiences outside of games to produce unique situations that would not exist without participation in games (Stevens et al., 2008).