Sunday, February 17, 2013

Jane McGonigal's TED Talks presentation



In Jane McGonigal’s presentation, she gave a self-described “exuberant” view of the future of gamers.  She hypothesized that if given the opportunity, gamers could begin solving real-world problems if they were in a video game construct.  She was optimistic about this because of the four facets of successful game creation:  Urgent Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, and Epic Meaning.  Each of these is critical to a gamer’s continued play.  Gamers are surrounded by collaborating players who believe in them; they believe that an “epic win” is always possible if they keep trying; and they are happy to be working hard to achieve various levels of play.  If these facets could be incorporated into learning situations, the current generation of students would be actively involved in their own education and would likely be more amenable to volunteering for solving real-world problems themselves.

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