- James Paul Gee (opening session for the 2007 GLS Conference)

when he started his career, the big issue was the literacy gap, which is still with us
in the 1970s, faced the "application gap" - even the kids who get A's can't apply the knowledge
"tech savvy gap" - those unafraid to play with and use technology
when you ask how many people are "tech savvy," 10% raise their hand; when you ask how many have "tech savvy" kids, 90%
- who has access to mentoring, not the tech itself

the "innovation gap" that is going to hit us in 20 years
one way you can see it is to look at how learning is working today
cutting edge learning systems are available on the internet but not in our schools
that is part of the challenge we face

need to speak to all of these gaps, not just the "tech savvy" one
can we build these learning environments and spread them to everybody in a way that does this?
while we do that, we face an interesting change
live in a world of information overload
getting information is easy - teaching people the ability to access it is the issue
there is so much information that is unusable
must give people ways to easily interface with it
"modding" culture - learning how to not just use information but modify it and do things with it
this is the most important skill in a world awash in information

doing this is at the heart of gaming
it's one of the things that's very important about it

how many important learning environments are out in the world but not in schools?
the literacy problem is not really learning phonics in first grade
the demands of school become complex and arcane throughout school
"the fourth grade slump"

the "dirty capitalists" sell our kids much more complex texts (eg, Pokemon)
see kids imbibing language that is complex and no gaps show up (it's not like minority kids can't master Yu-Gi-Oh)
master selling higher level skills in order to sell more stuff
the dirty capitalists trust our children more than our schools do

another area where this is obvious (referenced his book "The New Work Order") is cross-functional teams
people taking ulcer medicine because of work go home and play World of Warcraft for fun

not just about giving people games to learn, but also master learning
there will be a danger in this
gaming is a culture of learning - they're long, hard, problem-solving spaces
"I have to learn to do this if I don't want to keep being frustrated"
outside of school, people are addicted to learning - it's like a drug

referred to a study in which primates solved problems faster when there *weren't* rewards

culture of learning and games is profoundly at odds with traditional education
he started out as the typical Boomer - read the manual and typically failed until one day his 6-year old said, "Why don't you try something different?"
kids know very well that there's no point to reading the manual
gaming taught Gee that games are a great way to learn to read technical stuff if you play the game before you read it
if you choose to pick up the manual after you've played for a while, it's now completely lucid
engage in performance before competence - the exact reverse of what we do
we give out words before actions and images
game designers would go broke if they made kids read books before playing a game
his kid opens the game, puts it in, plays, and hands the book to Gee saying, "I know you like these"

failure is absolutely critical to learning
failure is mapping the maze
learning from failure is the core of learning engineering
the model of IDEO is "fail early and fail often" - he would love to put that up in every school, but just thinking about that shows how big the gap is in our schools

gamers love to transgress
they know a game is a system of rules
they try to figure out how to psych out the system, "gaming" the system
- figuring out how to leverage the rules to my advantage (and learning)
gaming the Social Security system and gaming are very similar
one would love to see science as something they game

the media understands this very badly, but gamers don't stare at eye candy because if you're doing that, you're dead (why are there fish in Grand Theft Auto? because you never see them unless you're keeling over into the pool)
leverage points for action, for sneaking
every game requires you to find the leverage points in that world to solve the problem you're trying to solve
what you're really looking for aren't pictures but models of that world that helps you succeed
the core skill of games is model-based thinking, which is also the core skill of academics

in addition, people mod and build mods all the time
popular culture is selling an intellectual enterprise of modeling, but in school kids run for the door when you tell them you're going to model algebra

quoted someone - "bleak" mode and "design" mode when designing
schools are about the "bleak" mode - who said it, is it true
"design" mode is also about "what can I use it for?" - how can I optimize the world to actually do something
when facts go out of date and information is too copious, the design mode says how do I leverage knowledge, which is what gaming is all about

playing games is eventually about designing (Tony Hawk games teach you to design skateboards)
Thomas Friedmann asks how do we get people into "design" mode

games are social, are part of social systems, gamers use strategies together
the social organization of gaming communities are very different than the social organizations of schools
to get schools to "design" mode, we're going to have to change social practices in schools

one thing about these affinity groups is a common passion, not race or gender
in the affinity group, you use your race and ethnicity strategically now, if you want to - it's not thrust upon you
newbies and experts hang out together
examples are "Age of Mythology" or "Civilizaton" communities

these sites all encourage intensive and extensive knowledge
encourage individual and distributed knowledge and how you build knowledge with others
honor tacit knowledge, something schools barely touch
many routes to participation
many routes to status (which breaks down hierarchies)
leadership is porous and leaders are not bosses - they're resourcing other people

these types of organizations would help make schools design-oriented

we're in an area that the individual game or even gaming in general that's going to save us, but this attitude

gls2007