While playing games growing up, I didn’t view that as a learning experience in any way, simply a means of fun and time to escape from everyday activities that had become a bore. I’m at a loss to relate my experiences directly to those that have always viewed games as tools in which to not only better them but also to show society that they are the “better” (in regards to the U.S. military). As an individual gamer, I’ve found the outside rewards to be exceptionally larger than those in which I wouldn’t normally receive having not played games.

Incorporating games into the classroom can be a useful tool if used appropriately. There are obviously countless statistics on the gamers that have evolved over the last few years, but I’m confident they out-weigh the gamers that exist within our generation. With that said, we can be content in the fact that our students have grown up in a gaming generation which has molded their minds with different perceptions on games. With these different perceptions, it seems that it would be easy to use our own pedagogies within the classroom considering we’re working on a diverse platform of gaming knowledge based users.

Having not taught at all in a classroom setting, yet coming from this generation of gamers, I can see the relevance and discourse for using games as a foundation for part of a lesson, even a class as a whole. Gee has always been pro-gaming in all imaginable ways and I’ve taken the perspective that he believes that games are more than pushing buttons, beating levels, and killing bad guys. I agree with the teaching approach and hope to explore it more. On a side note, with the bad rap gaming has gotten in regards to violence, it would be nice to shine some positive light on the educational value of gaming.