I struggled writing the title for this blog because it’s so obvious isn’t it? Of course education makes us cleverer, for many that’s the whole point. I suspect that many people, like me, have assumed that it’s about ‘filling’ our heads with knowledge but learning offers much more than that – it’s not just about […]
Tag Archives: learning
Rewarding learning
My little girl was ‘Star of the Week’ at her school last week for ‘great number work.’ She was ecstatic to receive the recognition. And it’s a big encouragement to her to keep on trying. I’m very proud of her. Coincidentally but far more trivially, I went up a level in Modern Warfare 2. […]
Reflecting on gameplay
I lose a lot of games. In fact, on balance I almost certainly lose more times than I win. But I’m not going to let it get me down. Repeated failure in games demonstrates a number of important aspects of in-game learning. The fact that getting it wrong, often terminally, is an intrinsic part of […]
What is school for?
I was party to a fascinating discussion with colleagues from the RSA yesterday about the nature of education: asking the basic question – what’s the point of school? Catalysed by the change in UK government, there seems to be a battle between the idea of school being a place for ‘transferring a body of knowledge’ […]
Where games meet learning
In earlier posts, I’ve looked at the research evidence for and against the learning potential for games and how play in general relates to learning. This post looks at the overlap between games and learning. Although many people become quite aerated about definitions, for the sake of today’s note, I’m simply using ‘games’ to mean […]
New Year’s Revolution
I’m excited about this year. I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions but this year is something of a revolution because I have something better. A new business. A new opportunity. After years of working as an academic, for the BBC and a couple of great independent media companies, I have started my own […]
Where play meets learning
Play’ and ‘games’ are dirty words to many traditional educationalists because of their connotations of trivial, wasteful and indulgent activity. It might hark back to our WASP-ish philosophy that only hardship and suffering are good for the soul. Even the seminal play theorist, Johan Huizinga, argued that play is “an activity connected with no […]
Games teach us nothing
There is an unending stream to commentators praising or damning the educational potential of games in equal measure but hard, empirical evidence is still hard to find. I thought I’d write a quick summary of papers for either camp. Those in favour claim that games are “ideal learning environments” and players demonstrate an “innate ability […]
Learning with Auntie
This week the BBC launched its new strategy for learning. Despite the unalloyed successes of the revision service Bitesize, the foolishly shelved creative offering for teenagers Blast and the sterling work of Adult Learning, the BBC has been frustratingly timid about its Charter-proclaimed educational remit for the last few years. The reason for the half-heartedness was, no doubt, […]
Failure, Friends and Finding your Feet
I love being a dad. I find it the most astonishing, life-affirming, challenging wonder-filled experience I have ever known and my children keep surprising me and teaching me new lessons. My little boy, Jacob, is 17 months old. He’s been tentatively and briefly on his feet for the last few weeks but mostly he’s been […]