Pinpointing key references from my investigation with Game-Based Learning, and brushing with Marshall McLuhan

The two best textbooks I seem to have found within my research are Game-Based learning Discover the pleasure of learning by Maja Pivec and MIchela  Moretti, (2008 Pabst Science Publishers ISBN 978-3-89967-521-4) and much to my tutor Dr Nigel Midhurst’s glee Digital Game-Based Learning by Marc Prensky (2001 McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-136344-0) as I always considered the digital native versus digital immigrant argument that bit too easy when it comes down to cognitive perception.

However early in both books they quote Marshall McLuhan and his observations that anyone who tries to make a distinction between gaming and education doesn't understand either seems like a good solid bold statement to start with so followed some of his ideas. His books had  titles like The Medium Is the Massage (1967 reissued by Gingko Press, 2001 ISBN 1-58423-070-3)  and War and Peace in the Global Village (1968 reissued by Gingko Press, 2001 ISBN 1-58423-074-6).

His approach of technological determinism seems very close to the underlying principles of imparting knowledge currently and although he died before the age of the internet his ideas surrounding ideas and learning mirror the speed of take-up, and redundancy associated with the dynamic medium. So whilst Marshall McLuhan's ideas revolve around the transport and delivery and success of a media this can be used in conjunction with my investigation as to how game-based learning can develop and establish.

His posthumous theory (completed by Eric McLuhan) of tetrad might be modified to help the builder of Game-Based learning activities, (I have substituted Marshall McLuhan's "medium" for process in this instance.

• What does the process enhance?
• What does the process make obsolete?
• What does the process retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
• What does the process flip into when pushed to extremes

 From Tetrad : Tetrad of media effects  In Laws of Media (1988) Eric McLuhan

Qualifying gaming based learning with environments and outcomes

I have started to read many papers on Games Based Learning and I have noticed that the degrees of sophistication seemed to have increased as the technology advances.. My usual reaction is to strip the process back to some basic precepts seems to be opening even more cans of worms….

Tracking precepts down seem to always go back to the conventions that we are slaves to the types of abilities that people have in their approaches to learning; whether they are visual aural or constructivist  learners by nature and then whether these learners  benefit from cooperation with larger bodies of like minded learners (Wengers communities of practice and enquiry) and then whether the heightened sense of collaboration adds extra cognitive value akin to P2 and Presence pedagogy (Garrison,  Bronack et al  etc).

So at the current time I am trying to weigh up in my mind which elements I can cherry pick with a mix of instinction and qualitative analysis to embed into a potential learning experience that  then can demonstrate that both from an enjoyment and theoretical perspective that any intervention I design ticks the right box..... Ho hum.. rather a tricky utopia I feel.. I think as long as good practice is embedded and if the learning process is gamey/ or fun enough...then the learning and assessment outcomes must surely be satisfactory…?   I wonder whether these wonderful learning metaphors that constantly litter current gaming and learning academia are quantitative enough?

As I wander through my games research I note with some interest the sometime banned ( and undoubtedly stereotypical and morally questionable) game "Ghettopoly" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/  seems to engender developing ace business studies skills though of a rather dubious and dystopian nature.. The learning outcomes also being a better understanding of the TV to DVD series “The Wire” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire