| Title | : | Postsecondary Play: The Role of Games and Social Media in Higher Education |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 142141306X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781421413068 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 |
| Publication | : | First published May 2, 2014 |
While the vast majority of college students use social media and gaming in their everyday lives, colleges and universities have been slow to recognize and harness the power of either. Postsecondary Play explores the significance of games and social media in higher education, and particularly how they can be used to attract, retain, educate, and socialize students.
Tierney, a past-president of American Educational Research Association, has gathered some of the best research on the emerging role of multiplayer games in the classroom and how these tools can boost student confidence and increase college access. Scholars writing from a wide variety of disciplines—college access, social media, game studies, and learning sciences—provide concrete examples to illustrate the new and complex ways in which students learn in response to social media and games. Tierney and the contributors find that, although games can be powerful tools for encouraging underserved students, quality game design and mastering the concept of play—the ability to develop skills while engaging the game—are essential in the effective use of serious games in teaching and learning.
Summarizing a decade of research in game design and learning, Postsecondary Play will appeal to higher education scholars and students of learning, online gaming, education, and the media.
Postsecondary Play: The Role of Games and Social Media in Higher Education Reviews
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It seems that as long as the state pays, a large number of Something University Press are ready to publish anything. This is not research. This is superstition. When four decades ago a University Professor was able to do this and that and today fifteen University Professors are not able to do all the same spending and than some more, the gang of paper pushers assembled by Tierney calls that "belt tightening". It would be interesting to notice how the University Professors of four decades ago were thinking the same thoughts when compared with yet another four decades before. But that sort of scholarship is beyond Tierney's gang's means.
Anyway, the usual empty words and blind nationalism in which a person called "The Country" falls behind in line at the soup cantine of gods. -
I am a gamification and games learning enthusiast and was very excited about the idea of an entire text on the topic. The most meaningful and useful part of this text is Part III where they actually talk about games being used for higher learning and games based thinking's potential applications in the field. However, we must first dig through a 100 page outline of academe's issues with technology and adaptation. This has been covered in myriad other texts and done better than in this case. The last section is mixed. Wieland's essay provides interesting counterpoint but had enough typos and over use of "quotation marks" to be distracting to his point.
Overall, I did take some notes here and there were some interesting points made from some scholars I hadn't heard from, but this could have been better edited for conciseness and more updated in content. -
This book is a disappointment because it is narrow. It is important to recognize the subtitle: "The role of games and social media in higher education." Therefore, instead of play being explored with digital and analogue diversity, the focus is on relatively conventional discussions about gaming and social media. Although published in 2014, it is dated to an early moment of digitization, getting down with the kids and their distinctive technology use. There are moments where the under-preparedness of university students is addressed. But the role - and indeed the definition - of 'play' in learning would have been useful.
