A Productive Approach to Video Games, Learning & School

A possibly interesting seminar is coming up in Melbourne titled, "A Productive Approach to Video Games, Learning & School", Saturday 19th August, 2006


James Paul Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD in linguistics in 1975 from Stanford University and has published widely in linguistics and education.

His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies (1990) was one of the founding documents in the formation of the “New Literacies Studies”, an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts.

His book An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (1999) brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades.

His most recent books both deal with video games, language, and learning. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003) offers 36 reasons why good video games
produce better learning conditions than many of today’s schools. Situated Language and Learning (2004) places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and
shows how they can help us in thinking about the reform of schools.

His new book, Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul, shows how good video games marry pleasure and learning and have the capacity to empower people.

The Macarthur Foundation is awarding a major grant to Gamelab and the Academic Co-Lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The $1 million+ award will fund the research and development of Game Designer, innovative educational software that will teach junior high through university students about game design by letting them create and modify games. The Academic Co-Lab, headed by leading game scholar Jim Gee, will work closely with Gamelab throughout design and production

Entry free. rsvp: prue.madden@education.monash.edu.au

Other enquiries to : Tony Forster, 9796 8161, forster@ozonline.com.au