The World of the Game

In the last few weeks, many students have been immersed in playing and winning Plants vs. Zombies, a computer game designed by George Fan. It's been a highly collaborative process,with students playing together, separately, or with staff to master the complex and humorous world of peashooters, pole-vaulters, and other magical plants and zombies. Sam is playing here while students gather around, learning and questioning as they watch him skillfully navigate the world of this game.

Although video games are not yet widely recognized as the valid and worthwhile learning environments that they are, Rising Tide School students are free to participate in the fascinating activity of entering a magical and strange world and using their skills and wits to figure it out and master it. I recently enjoyed reading an interview with scientist David Deutsch about the place that video games play in children's lives today. Consider this insight from Deutsch:

"Apart from conversation, all the complex interactive things require a huge initial investment, except video games, and I think video games are a breakthrough in human culture for that reason. They are not some transient, fringe aspect of culture; they are destined to be an important means of human learning for the rest of history, because of this interactive element. Why is being interactive so important? Because interacting with a complex entity is what life and thinking and creativity and art and science are all about."

The full article is here and is a great read for anyone who wants to understand how video games fit into a Sudbury education. Games are an essential way that children learn when they direct their own time, and video games, along with the all the other complex, creative games invented by the students themselves, create the rich world of play and learning that is Rising Tide School.