National Public Radio recently posted an interview between Will Wright and Dr. E. O. Wilson.
Wilson is professor emeritus at Harvard University and biologist, is a two-time Pulitzer-winning ant expert who helped develop theories of island biogeography, chemical ecology, and sociobiology. A leader in the modern environmental movement, Wilson has devoted his life to understanding how all forms of life are connected.
Wright is famous for creating The Sims, the best selling video game in history and Spore, a recent game incorporating many science themes. One of Wright’s first games, SimAnt, is based partially on the work of Wilson.
During the conversation, the first question Wright asked was if Wilson saw a role for games in the educational process.
I’ll go to an even more radical position,” Wilson said. I think games are the future in education. We’re going through a rapid transition now. We’re about to leave print and textbooks behind.
Wilson elaborated further:
. . . for the most part, we are teaching children the wrong way. When children went out in Paleolithic times, they went with adults and they learned everything they needed to learn by participating in the process. That’s the way the human mind is programmed to learn.
Wilson also suggested that virtual reality “can be a steppingstone to the real world.”
This is nothing new. More experts are saying the same thing about the power of games and simulations as learning engines.
But what I enjoyed was the ability of both men to have a conversation that integrated science into a variety of other fields. I don’t think we do this enough in our classrooms. Too often, our conversations and work is focused on a narrow range – names, dates, places, people – without giving kids a chance to explore the relationships between our content and literature, for example.
Listening to the conversation was a good reminder about how important it is for kids to see history as a story connected to a much bigger world.
Image sources – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson, www.flickr.com/photos/sketch22/420745216
Many experts believe that contrary to some who deem the Internet is bad, it is a useful tool that promoted learning to unbelievable new heights. Schools should welcome the Internet with unbiased ideology and those educators who believe computers are just toys and have no place in the classroom for learning are mistaken. Perhaps some older, less adaptive teachers, those who do not understand and suffer from what scholars calls “digital anxiety” should reconsider their position and perhaps learn quickly as well. Unbelievable as it seems, the developed world is now mostly reliant on computers. Business and schools should be no different.
Thanks for the comment! I agree that educators need to welcome the internet and I do believe that schools are moving in that direction. Part of the problem is the requirement that schools maintain internet filters, this often limits those teachers who do want to use the tool.
But I do think we’re slowly making progress!
glennw
Graduate School requirement for a “Technology and Web 2.0″ class…
Interesting site you have here, thanks!
You do bring up a good point however, that internet filters can be annoying and a hindrance while trying to teach. I would only say, that there are always ways around this scenario. Who needs to worry about filters when there is so much content online to choice from? If in fact, a particular site has been blocked because of disagreeable content, then one probably didn’t need to consider that content to begin with. Move on and do the best that you can do; let’s remember that there are millions of websites to choose from…
Thanks.
I agree that there are many sites with great content. I think we as teachers need to be very aware of all of the different options available. But often sites are blocked, not because of content, but because of default settings in the filtering software. Delicious or Evernote, both great tools, often remain blocked because it’s “too difficult” to unblock them.
I’m not against filtering systems . . . I’m against filtering systems that don’t seem to be run with any common sense.
Thanks for your comments! Good luck with the grad course.
glennw
Thanks for the insightful and “common sense” discussion! You’re welcome and good luck to you as well…
yeah thats wierd how people think the internet is bad its full of potential and great opportunities they are just uneducated i guess
the future of technology is never-ending. so many possibilities, and this is definitely in that future