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Adam,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Insightful!
Jason

We are working with Michigan State to use gaming to teach Mandarin to our 3rd-8th grade students. Answering your questions:
1. Engaging something means participating. We often assume the "cool" factor is what makes gaming an important feature to add in our schools. We miss the boat here if we do not look at the deeper issues. Our students are "working,living,and creating" in a virtual Beijing, China. They are as close as they can get to getting off a plane and stepping foot in another country. Gaming allows our students to interact with locals, shops, and have experiences they could not get out of a textbook. Cool? yes but lets look beyond the obvious and create environments where kids can use their imagination AND complete real life tasks.
2. Sometimes- There will always be a need to balance the thinking tasks of our students- content is always important...but content is now easier to obtain through technology/internet. Technology should be used to give kids these experiences of engagement...not to simply give them the experience of using technology. Participatory learning is not new- just the ways we can make it happen have now grown substantially- there are no excuses to not giving our students these experiences - we must change our mindsets when it comes to gaming-
why game? To engage kids...if gaming is not available...then create other ways to have students participate in true life situations.
3. I would use the games to do three things-
a. Hand over control to the students- Autonomy=empowerment
our students are sitting at the driver seat when they log into Zon, the virtual city created by MSU
They have tasks, assignments, and certain rules that must be followed- but they choose the pace, what pit stops they may take, and control their learning- this is not matched in a traditional classroom
b. Though not something I would hang my hat on, use the "cool" factor to grab people's attention. Our parents were supportive of this not because they understand the benefits or see that this is crucial for the future of education- it was at first just really cool. Same with the students. - Hook them with the cool factor...then start learning! Who thought Mandarin could be so fun!
c. Make sure there is a balance. We know that just putting kids in front of a computer could be a detriment to their learning. As educators and parents, we know that screen time has increased tremendously when it comes to students. Movies, TV, video games, ipods, all these new tech tools rule our students' lives. Using them in the classroom makes sense but lets balance that with face time and give our students opportunities to see the value of looking someone in the eye.