Points to ponder

• “ There are many good principles of learning built into good computer and video games” (Gee 2004)      
• “ Content has never been king, it is not king now, and is unlikely to ever be king. The Internet has done quite well without content, and can continue to flourish without it.” (Odlyzko 2001)       
• “The typical piece of information will never be looked at by a human being” (Lesk 1997)

In my own experience I have found that focusing too heavily on content narrows the range of users (since learners have varying interests) while focusing too heavily on interactivity at the expense of content may leave learners feeling ‘cheated’ (as they have to fill gaps in information on their own). Even the most interactive 3D movies with superb graphics that pull you into the movie, will only engage you so much if the storyline is poor (Anyone who's seen My Bloody Valentine can attest to this).

A common complaint about early car racing games was that you felt that you were really driving, but there simply wasn’t that much to do.  It seems amazing that so much is being paid for access, without paying as much attention to the thing being accessed as to the ability to access it (or not) via their own means.Odlyzko argues that connectivity is more important that content in modern communication industry.

Does this assertion that “most of the money is in point-to-point communication” represent opportunity or an obstacle for the future of digital learning systems? It begs the question: Should we focus on what is learnt, or on how and where it is learnt? Are gamers looking for a good plot, a rich world to inhabit or are they looking for interactivity – the freedom to connect and choose their own modes of access? Finally, should so-called “educational” media be designed for the person (pulling users to their content), or for the systems (targeting the most popular networks of connectivity)?   

Meeting the need vs. meeting the user? In a sense these are not issues unique to digital learning. All forms of learning encounter the need balance content with interactivity. But I hesitate to use purely commercial criteria as a measure of the effectiveness of media, particularly in the context of learning. Surely the content of a good game include skills and problem-solving abilities, more than mere information. The challenge is to see how educational “information” be integrated in a meaningful and engaging way in digital games.

References

Gee, J.P. (2004) Learning by design: Games as learning machines. Interactive Educational Multimedia, 8 (April 2004) 15-23.

Lesk, M. (1997) How much information is there in the world? Unpublished paper, available at  http://www.lesk.com/mlesk/diglib.html!.

Odlyzko, A. 2001. Content is not king. AT&T Labs Research. http://www.research.att.com/amo