Gaming...education...nanotechnology...

Is it possible for technology and information access to help compensate for disadvantages caused by neglect, poverty, and/or general lack of opportunity?

Perhaps. What we know about childhood development and emergent literacy is this: positive, stimulating interaction creates and strengthens essential connections within the brain. Every experience that a child has affects the development of those connections. Such connections are being made at an astounding pace in an infant's brain...but through interactive, lifelong learning, they can continue to be developed and strengthened as an adult.

So, what does all this have to do with Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines by James Paul Gee and We Live Here: Games, Third Places and the Information Architecture of the Future by Andrew Hinton?

As I reflected on the readings, I remembered a book I read several years ago that resonated deeply enough with me that I am still trying to get other people who "don't read science fiction" to read it. It's called The Diamond Age: or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson. This is science fiction, so it is set in the future. The story evolves around what nanotechnology could make possible, so it's not something we're going to see on our laptops for Christmas '06. The character I remember most in this book is Nell, a young girl who lives extreme poverty, doing her best to avoid abuse by her mother and her mother's string of loser boyfriends. Nell really doesn't stand a chance. Her older brother survives by belonging to a gang, and looks out for Nell as much as possible. She is not being sent to school, not being cared for, certainly not being valued or educated. Yet, her brother happens to rob a man who is carrying a special "book," which he gives to Nell. Nell's salvation through this book is what I remember. Of course, other characters played major parts and had parallel story lines...but those didn't really stick with me.

Gee has created a checklist of learning principles that are built into good games. He speaks of co-design, customization, identity, well-ordered problems, and cycles of expertise, sandboxes, and much more. Nell's "book" incorporated all of these. It's as though Gee read The Diamond Age (actually, I would bet that he has). Nell is not getting any positive interaction from any caring adult, and before she gets the book, she'd be lucky to survive to grow up to be a part-time prostitute like her mother. Yet, when she opens the book, a whole new world opens up to her--literally. We've talked about Second Life being an escape or another reality; this book goes far beyond all that. Based on nanotechnology, the book can create worlds to teach different skills, as though the reader were walking into a fairy tale or a textbook. Nell doesn't have to be able to read yet: the book adapts to match her current abilities and needs. It changes as she learns, and it works with her to develop essential survival skills in addition to intellectual skills. Of course, it's not the drill and practice that we see in so much educational technology currently available. It draws her into to various "games," in which she learns reading, writing, arithmetic, martial arts, and more. The book also gives Nell an identity and a relationship to a teacher within the game worlds that offer more stability, respect, and caring than anything she is likely to encounter in her home.

To bring us around to Hinton, Nell does basically begin to live within this book world as much as she can. Unfortunately for Nell, it is not her "third place," where she goes to have fun or socialize. It's really her first place, and her only safe place. Still, it offers the environment that Hinton recommends, creating the right conditions for Nell to give life to her education. The book offers sort of an "open architecture" that allows Nell to change the "reality" as she goes.

I think that one reason I was so intrigued by this book was the idea--the hope--that our advancing technology might in some way equalize the disparities in opportunity between rich and poor, educated and uneducated. Of course, the digital divide may only exasperate the disparities; that is the outcome most often discussed. However, if access to technology is made equitable, then the learning principles in games (listed by Gee) could be especially beneficial to different learning styles, to those with LD, and those labeled "at-risk." No, the warm glow of a a computer screen shouldn't (and couldn't) replace the kind, loving hug of a care-giver. I do think, however that development of technology in this area can lead to advancements beyond letting people live out the wish-fulfillment fantasies of choosing a particular body size or hair style, as in Second Life.

And there you have my slightly tangential musings on gaming and education.