Nerd Mentality

Will Wright Interview Describes Future of Gaming as Education

Posted September 1st 2009 by Jared Thomas.

Oddly enough, Wright wasn't even the one being interviewed.

Through NPR's Open Mic segment, lauded game designer Will Wright took the interviewer's seat to question any person of his choosing.  His choice?  Edward O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard University and expert in various fields of biology, who Wright said "inspired a huge amount of my work." (Think SimAnt.)

Wright went in loaded with questions about evolution and humanism, and was caught off guard by Wilson's reciprocal interest in gaming.

"I was very curious," Wright said, "to find out if he saw a role for games in the educational process."

"I'll go to an even more radical position," Wilson said. "I think games are the future in education. We're going through a rapid transition now. We're about to leave print textbooks behind."

Radio stream and more after the break.

Wilson elaborated, "For example, I envision visits to different ecosystems that the student could actually enter – taking this path, going to that hill – with an instructor.  That could be a rain forest, a tundra, or a Jurassic forest."

According to Wilson, teaching via gaming would be much more conducive to humankind's natural learning process than sitting in a room listening to lectures.  "We are teaching kids, for the most part, the wrong way," he said.

"When children went out in Paleolithic times," Wilson said, "they went with adults – they learned everything they needed to learn by participating in the process."

Wright described this idea as a natural "stepping stone" that could motivate children and give them the confidence to continue their expeditions in the real world.  At the end of the discussion, their parting perhaps contained the seeds of this very type of gaming education:

"I hope I'll meet you sometime," Wilson adjourned, adding, "Maybe walking together through that Jurassic forest."

Wright laughed, "I'll start working on it, yeah."

And that's confirmation enough for me, the amateur journalist.

WRIGHT ANNOUNCES JURASSIC FOREST EXPEDITION!! (tentative title)

If you'd like to hear the interview for yourself, here's the stream.

Extended sessions of the interview are available at NPR.org.

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