Room With A View

Grand Theft Auto IV was released recently week. CBC’s The Q has a good story on it. For those not familiar with the game the player earns points by stealing cars, running people over, killing cops, and pretty much doing whatever is totally evil. Obviously, it’s controversial and it makes money–lots of it. It’s estimated that it grossed over $500 million in its first week. That beats out all other entertainment releases ever. The number one grossing movie ever was Spiderman 3. It made a little more than $150 million in its first week. What does this mean to education? It challenges us to look at what kids are learning in games like this and how they are learning it.

We need to look at what they are learning so we can challenge students to think critically about what they are consuming and what effect it might be having on them and society.

We need to look at the how they are learning in games so we can figure out what makes some games so captivating so we can weave these same techniques into our pedagogy.