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Gamers and learners new socio-economic challenges Ben Williamson. Overview. Computer games, learning and... Emergent socio-economic challenges Classroom responses. What new & emergent socio-economic challenges? The consumer market The digital divide. New socio-economic challenges.
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Gamers and learnersnew socio-economic challengesBen Williamson
Overview • Computer games, learning and... • Emergent socio-economic challenges • Classroom responses
What new & emergent socio-economic challenges? • The consumer market • The digital divide
New socio-economic challenges We are placing a “lower priority on teaching children how to thrive socially, intellectually, even spiritually, than on training them to consume” - Juliet Schor, Born to Buy, 2004
[We must] “facilitate learning for a generation that can live and work in knowledge intensive organizations and institutions where they will have to rely on skills of flexibility and adaptability to cope with ever changing conditions and situations” WimVeen & Ben Vrakking, Homo Zappiens, 2006
Playful consumers “Play is educational, and such play is invaluable for the future; it fosters individuals’ capacity for continuous learning, flexibility and adaptability as an adult. This metaphor of constant learning, knowledge acquisition, involvement and engagement as well as the notion of open-ended results and variety is particularly appealing in the “knowledge-based” economy. ...[T]his philosophy is future-oriented. Children now are already creating the future” Jane Jenson, The Lego Paradigm, 2006
“Post-industrialist capitalist economies are developing into cultures of ‘play’ in which a pervasive ‘play ethic’ is superseding the work ethic.” Allucquere Rosanne Stone The War of Desire and Technology, 1995
Games are “perfect training for life in fin de siecleAmerica, where daily existence demands the ability to parse sixteen kinds of information being fired at you simultaneously” JC Herz, Joystick Nation, 1997 Games are “a sort of low-level domestic socialization for high-tech work practices” Stephen Kline et al, Digital Play, 2003
Digitally native or divided? Who are the children? “digital natives” “homo zappiens” “digital generation” “net generation” “Nintendo generation” “cyberkids” • Wishful thinking? • Divisive or cohesive?
Dividing the child Learner Consumer Child Player Worker Commodified
Redefining/dividing the child as a consumer/learner • Play ethic vs. work ethic • Flexible and response-able • Colonisation of desires • Corporate curriculum
Classroom response • Critical media literacy (egMissionMaker) • Socially responsible games (egClimate Challenge) • Curricular “wraparound” (egNintendogs) • Social creativity (egLittleBigPlanet)
www.futurelab.org.uk ben.williamson@futurelab.org.uk