Can We Take from Gamers ?
From what I could tell about Gamers is that it’s an extension of everyday life. There are good communities that work together to build, and then there are bad communities that destroy. Some people hack into your account and steal what you have collected. It is a place that people communicate about how to build something or work together. Then there are people to talk smack and put you down. Seems to me they have the same challenges we have now except that in is in a digital world.
While talking with the kids I interviewed, they shared that some games are fun and others boring. Also, some cater to a younger crowd and others an older crowd. Which leads me to my same conclusion of the difficulty of creating a collective learning environment about academics. Overall kids are not going to just participate in a learning environment on their own. I am at the end of this book and I have not been convinced to this way of teaching.
However technology in the classroom is a must for today’s teaching. Technology will be a mainstay of kids’ adult life. They will utilize technology in ways we do not even understand today. Kids need to learn how to use technology to support their own learning style. It is a way to not only differentiate but to individualize instruction.
Margo's World with Leadership In Educational Technology 
I think that the authors have a point that gaming is an environment that is engaging and encourages risk-taking, but I agree with you that I do not know how to implement this learning environment in the classroom with the pressures of academic standards and testing (not to mention district-mandated programs). The only way of doing it would be to assign gaming as homework (LOL) and we both know what kind of trouble we would be in then!
There is your million dollar idea. Gaming that has to do with academics for homework!!
Wouldn’t that be that be the truth?? I wish students would spend half as much time putting effort into their work as the do in any of the games they play. you guys start off with the gaming for HW and let me know how that works for you. LOL I will jump on the ban wagon later. 🙂
academic gaming homework!! Ohh Yea!!!
Man, this boat’s gettin’ crowded 🙂
Margo, I really like your observation “Seems to me they have the same challenges we have now except that in is in a digital world”. Do students really need to experience stress at school, stress at home, and stress from an online gaming community? Do parents really need another online site to monitor? I wonder if any young people have committed suicide because of bullying on a game site? If World of Warcraft will teach my students math and sentence writing, I will consider it.
Yes, I was a little surprised at some of the comments my teenage son and his friend made about gaming. The book didn’t cover that.