Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt: 
A small trail to the right leads to a small Ring of Apricot Trees. Just where you turn off, there is a small statue (at least you think it is a statue) of a gnome with hands outspread holding a sign on the left "Engage me" and on the right "Enrage me." Knowing well the possibilities of enchanted objects, and not being too sure either if the statue actually is a live gnome, you walk on by. The gnome's question gets your thoughts rolling, "Engage me or Enrage me." What could it mean?

Ring of Apricot Trees
Engage Me or Enrage Me: What Today's Learners Demand by Marc Prensky

     Marc Prensky outlines three types of students in today's classroom: Students that are self-motivated, students that are going through the motions, and students that have "tuned out."  Educators have learned to accommodate the first two groups of students by creating reward systems and focusing on these students because they are easy to work with.  But the students that have "tuned out" do not respond to rewards, because the rewards do not appeal to them and they are the farthest thing from easy to work with. In order to work with the "tuned out" students and help them with their academics educators need to uncover why they are so enraged, as opposed to being engaged.
     Engaging students in the classroom is a rising concern because the learners of this century expect to be engaged in everything the do.  Their standards have raised because they live in a rich culture.  Not just a culture that has grown monetarily, but we live in a culture that is rich in media and special effects.  Subsequently, the learners that have developed rich in media have lacked development in engaging communication. 
     Prensky believes that the learners are so enraged because they are challenging educators to engages them at their level, and educators are failing.  Teachers are stuck on the curriculum of the past and are blind to the new opportunities they have to teach the basics.  He proposes that educators teach the "old stuff" but, as they are doing so, challenge their students to the edge of their capabilities.  Encourages the students to make important decisions daily that would help them reach self made goals. Students will reach higher goals if the goals are important to them. 

Review: 
     If I were the gnome I would say that is article as engaged me.  It is mind blowing to have insight as to why our students, most of whom we diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, are so disengaged in the classroom. When I first heard about game based learning I was a bit skeptical, but what I read in this article makes sense.  Learners are continuously over stimulated with the rich media in their life that school becomes a bore. Teachers should not be so uptight when other educators call them boring because they are! That is, in comparison to the life that their students are living. 
    One area of this article that I did not agree with was when the author stated that children are much less rich in creative opportunities outside of school.  Just because students may not be participating in ballet, band, or other areas of the arts does not mean their creativity is being stifled.  The technology available today offers many other opportunities for creativity.