Kristian Knutsen
Hardcore gamers showed the ropes to novices, and many teachers played the games their students talk about daily for the first time in the Games + Learning + Society conference 'arcade.'
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned in a speech on Father's Day that kids need to put down the video game controllers and pick up books. His message was clearly that while a book can be educational, playing a game is not. However, at the Games+Learning+Society Conference this week at Monona Terrace, hundreds of people at the intersection of gaming and learning are working to prove not only that games can be educational, but that many already are.
Constance Steinkuehler, an assistant professor in the Education Communication and Technology program at the Univesity of Wisconsin-Madison founded the Coordinator Sean Michael Dargan, dressed in a suit with a "Space Invaders" bow-tie, kicked off the event on Thursday morning with a short introduction of the opening plenary panel that included James Paul Gee. A professor at Arizona State University whose latest book is titled "Why Video Games Are Good For Your Soul," Gee was formerly a faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He placed videogames within an overall theory of learning and literacy in his talk, not to mention heartily endorsed Metal Gear Solid 4, a stealth action title from master designer Hideo Kojima. I'm exactly the kind of person this conference appeals to with its formal and informal programming, and in my high school days, I spent as much time in front of a computer writing as I did playing games like Quake and Legend of Zelda. So I perused a schedule of the panels, presentations, and discussion groups and quickly determined I could easily spend five days here listening to everything despite the fact that the conference only ran two days. And in addition to the numerous speakers, the GLS conference also provided a huge "arcade" with monitors and game systems presenting some of the best the gaming world has to offer today. Certified blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto IV, Wii Sports, and World of Warcraft mingled with cult hits like Psychonauts and Katamari Damacy. Hardcore gamers showed the ropes to novices, and many teachers played the games their students talk about daily for the first time. I sat in for a time with Alex Quinn and Karen Sideman in a "fireside chat" about their project Augmented Reality Game (ARG) they'd set up to give visitors a taste of downtown Madsion via their PDA or wireless laptop. Looked ahead on the schedule, it was barely noon on the first day and still to come were talks about game mechanics and learning, the social construction of games in first grade classrooms, and the intersection of exercise and gaming with Dance Dance Revolution. After the GLS conference closed, attendees were invited to join in a live-action version of Rock Band with the Madison institution The Gomers with a special edition of Gomeroke. Friday would bring even more panels and roundtables discussions about everything from the lessons on identity imparted by World of Warcraft to the history-teaching value of games like Civilization. If the Games Learning Society has the kind of impact going forward that it's projecting, Senator Obama need not fear the massive multiplayer world.
