Anti-Education Era -- James Paul Gee, Paperback

One of the first champions of the positive effects of gaming reveals the dark side of today's digital and social media

Today's schools are eager to use the latest technology in the classroom, but rather than improving learning, the new e-media can just as easily narrow students' horizons. Education innovator James Paul Gee first documented the educational benefits of gaming a decade ago in his classic What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Now, with digital and social media at the center of modern life, he issues an important warning that groundbreaking new technologies, far from revolutionizing schooling, can stymy the next generation's ability to resolve deep global challenges. The solution-and perhaps our children's future-lies in what Gee calls synchronized intelligence, a way of organizing people and their digital tools to solve problems, produce knowledge, and allow people to count and contribute. Gee explores important strategies and tools for today's parents, educators, and policy makers, including virtual worlds, artificial tutors, and ways to create collective intelligence where everyday people can solve hard problems. By harnessing the power of human creativity with interactional and technological sophistication we can finally overcome the limitations of today's failing educational system and solve problems in our high-risk global world. The Anti-Education Era is a powerful and important call to reshape digital learning, engage children in a meaningful educational experience, and bridge inequality.

Author: James Paul Gee
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 01/08/2013
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.62lbs
Size: 9.11h x 6.23w x 0.69d
ISBN: 9780230342095

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 12/01/2012 pg. 6
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2013
Library Journal 03/15/2013 pg. 114
Choice 09/01/2013

About the Author

James Paul Gee has been featured in a variety of publications including Redbook, Child, Teacher, USA Today, Education Week, The Chicago Tribune, and more. He was formerly the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is now the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. He is a founder of the Center for Games and Impact at ASU which orchestrated a national conversation on games and learning for the White House Office of Science and Technology. Described by The Chronicle of Higher Education as a serious scholar who is taking a lead in an emerging field, he is the author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.