Authentic Doing in Education

Way back in the medieval age of lab-based computing, we banned games and gaming. The logic of such was quite simple: computers were treated as a limited resource and therefore it was an easy argument to enforce academic use only. Stepping forward to the new millennium (5 years later), we shed all prohibitions of use other than those which violate our Use Agreement (generally actions that are illegal). Class time is obviously a different story—this is the teacher’s domain and of course no one allows gaming. I’m not saying it does not happen. How many of us snuck Sports Illustrated—or worse—behind our history textbook during “study periods?” Legislating “attention” rarely works except for those who are already attending.

I’ve led approx 40 tours of visiting educators to Urban who want to see a laptop program in action—many of whom expect to see solo-gaming running rampant—and most leave a bit shocked to realize that relatively few are doing this, even during their break times. The vast majority of our students have games loaded, BUT, then again, the vast majority are serious students whose primary focus is a combination of academics and social interactions and not burying themselves in gaming solitude.

That said, there is an important minority—who tend to be socially awkward male 9th graders—who quickly enter the radar of a slew of adults (techs, teachers, advisors, deans, counselors and parents). This is the power of all our schools: small, personal, independent organizations who excel at knowing their students and building nurturing relationships. Telling students that they can not play games on their personal laptops in their own free time is like legislating against doodling, reading comic books, playing solitaire, writing romance novels, or just daydreaming about rollercoasters.

The role of our adult advisor/mentors is significant for they are likely the better target of discussion on ways to help students mature and move on to natural attentiveness.