James Paul Gee: Language, the World, and Video Games: Why and How All Learning is Language Learning

Abstract: This talk starts from the premise that we are living at a time when human stupidity has brought us to the verge of disaster. At the same time, while schools and colleges are largely stuck in the past, a new paradigm of 21st Century learning has arisen out of school creating new possibilities, but new equity divides as well. To understand this new paradigm and how to spread it before it is too late for us humans we need to rethink how language, mind, human experience, digital tools like video games, and leaning can work together to create collective intelligence. In particular I will argue that our current views of learning and teaching in schools seriously misunderstands language and literacy, let alone new digital media. Speaker’s Biography: James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies and Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies (Fourth Edition 2011) was one of the founding documents in the formation of the “New Literacy Studies”. His book An Introduction to Discourse Analysis (Third Edition 2011) brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades. His most recent books have dealt with video games, language, and learning. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Second Edition 2007) argues that good video games are designed to enhance learning through effective learning principles supported by research in the Learning Sciences. Situated Language and Learning (2004) places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and shows how they can help us in thinking about the reform of schools. The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Media appeared in 2013. Prof. Gee has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education.