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McKenzie JonesProf. SansingEnglish 100127 January 2018Many people believe that games have a negative impact on the learning of a person. James Paul Gee, however, suggested in his article “Good Video Games and good Learning” that learning environments, like schools, should be more like video games. I both agree and disagree with this statement. In agreement with Gee, I believe that active learning environments should be more like video games. Through games people are challenged in a “pleasantly frustrating” way and this motivates them to push through and achieve the set goals of the game. A recent research study done by TalentLMS- a gaming industry- showed that 60% of the surveyed population who identified as gamers agreed that the competitiveness and difficulty of the games motivated them. If this method of “pleasantly frustrating” challenges were applied to learning, especially in schools, then it would be 60% of students who are motivated to succeed in class. This opposed to the 40% who are not engaged during the course of their class time, according to a study by Forbes Tech (Crotty, 1). 60% of students passing classes. 60% of students actively participating in class. 60% of students heading out into the work field with an education.On the contrary, I also disagree with Gee’s idea that video games should be applied to learning environments. In “Good Video Games and Good Learning” Gee says that “ Good video games operate by a principal just the reverse of most schools; performance before competence”(37). Following James Paul Gee’s idea of making schools more like video games, this implies that good schools should also operate by the ‘performance before competence’ method. This would improve the schools. I disagree. Using the ‘performance before competence’ approach can have negative consequences in school. For example, suppose students are taking a science class where this approach is enforced and the students are working with chemicals. No previous knowledge is needed before performing the experiment. Students are not required to know what chemicals are harmful to mix. What happens if a student mixes harmful chemicals and this affects themselves or another student? Sometimes, knowing the rules before the game starts is a good thing. In addition to this, the ‘performance before competence’ approach is harmful being that it could allow for students to do the ‘how’ without knowing the ‘why’. According to Brian Etheridge, an author and public speaker for Linked In, “Knowing ‘why’ allows us to make decisions in absence of direction” (1). Knowing why you do something helps you to decide if you should do one thing rather than another and how to do it. With the ‘competence before performance’ approach students know the important decision-making material before they make the decisions about how they should go about performing a task.To summarize, I believe there are both advantages and disadvantages to active learning environments like work and school being more like video games. While games do provide a guideline for competitiveness and motivation during learning, they do not apply very well to real world situations. Works CitedGee, James Paul. “Good Video Games and Good Learning.” Phi Kappa Phi Forum vol. 85 no. 2, 2005, pp. 33-37. geeimg/pdfs/Good%20Games%20 and%20Good%20Learning.pdf. Accessed 1 Feb. 2017.Etheridge, Brian. “The Importance of Knowing ‘Why?"” Linkedin, 28 Aug. 2016.Crotty, James Marshall. “Motivation Matters: 40% Of High School Students Chronically Disengaged From School.” Forbes Tech, 13 Mar. 2013 ................
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