Do you want to be a cutting edge educational expert on computer games? Here are the two, key principles.
Point #1: There is Value in "Doing Something With Feedback"
Argue that computer games are fabulous because players do things, and learn from their mistakes.
"But what if someone argues back," you are thinking, "that people also learn from gardening, changing a light bulb, running a lemonade stand, driving from one place to another, making dinner for friends, and doing just about any hobby, or really, anything."
That's easy. Just bring up scalability, in terms of big numbers (computer games now make more money than box officereceipts -or- the averageperson plays 24.3 hours of computer games a day) or zoom into concepts, taking advantage of big words (they are utilizing advancedtask analysis or cognitive anything). These will help.
Point #2: There is Value in "Getting People Together."
Argue that multiplayer environments are incredible because the get people together. And once people get together, they share ideas, they network, they pass concepts to and from each other, they are involved in unstructured learning. Information is fresh, current, real.
Again, I know what you are worried about. People already get together all of the time. They get together in car pools, subways, cafeterias, and water coolers. When people get together, they tend to talk about their families and television shows.
So again, use big numbers (YouTube sold for 1.6 billiondollars -or- one quarter of all Internet users use facebook and myspace) or big words (social networking and points economy).
Paydirt! "Getting People Together" in order to "Do Something with Feedback"
The first two arguments work well by themselves. You can become a well respected thinker just on those two alone.
But if you want to be a real-thought leader, an intellectual giant among ants, put the two together. Now you are in World of Warcraft territory. The only limitation to your success is how big and academic you can make the adjectives. Now you can use phrases like "social cues" or "orchestrating strategy."
You are now ready to usher in a new paradigm of education. You are cutting edge. This will change everything. (And, best of all, if you are too lazy to actually come up with new ideas, just look up "group challenges" or "ropes course" or "little league" or "chess club" or "corporate outing" and cut and paste from there.)
P.S. If you want some proof, use the "volume" logic. It goes something like:
One: generically, games and web sites involve some form of learning and/or at least information.
Two: some games/sites generate a lot of traffic. Let's call one "site x."
Three: Most likely, there are big name corporations that spend advertising dollars to expose themselves to this "site x" traffic and eyeballs. Let's call one "corporation y."
Four: educational theorists just connect the statements and say: "corporate y" gets this new model of learning and education. See, they have a big presence in "site x".
QED
