Review! JPG's What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy

I really like abbreviating James Paul Gee's name. I could just call him "Gee", but that is not as fun. I was trying to keep my review short and simple but I had a lot to say about the book! Especially trying to answer questions posed by our professor. So here is my Goodreads review.

The upshot:

1. James Paul Gee explains to us why video games are not "a waste of time"

2. He does this through his personal experiences with video games. You can tell he's played a lot because he uses examples over several genres and consoles.

3. He relates these learning experiences to difficulties children face while learning in the classroom.

For example, he writes about how a player might want to make certain choices within a video game because of an identity he or she has assumed. JPG played Arcanum and decided he wanted his character, a female half-elf, to have a good history within the game. When he felt bad about selling an important artifact another character had given him, he started back from an old save point so he could redo it. He compared it to the fact that if a children has identified himself as "someone who hates math", he's going to have a disadvantage in the classroom.

Another good point he makes is the fact that video games are made to teach. If they're too easy, they're boring and if they're too difficult, they're no fun. They are inherently designed to introduce challenges at a level that players can deal with and rewards them for learning within their self-contained universe or "semiotic domain". Games also offer "psychosocial moratoriums" - that is, a learning place where risks are lowered. If you mess up, you can start back at a save point. This is very conducive to learning.

The book has a lot of great points and I liked approaching it from parts I wanted to read rather than trying to sit down with it and just read start to finish. It's not a fiction novel and not every word contributes to a plot. I skipped ahead to a Tomb Raider example that seemed interesting, then went back to Pikmin, and started reading in between to fill in the "why". That makes this kind of book way more readable.