Watch “a dude who has learned very little in any world, real or virtual,” says the article posting this video in a story about the Games+Learning+Society Conference now underway at the University of Wisconsin.
There is some profanity in the video that reminds me of overhearing my little brother and his friend talking to each other when they were about 13-years-old. The voices you hear are real people, whose physical location could be anywhere on earth where there is a sufficient internet connection to play the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) World of Warcraft (WoW).
The scene you will watch in the video is played out by avatars, each representing and controlled remotely by a human player in WoW. You will see why the human resources industry has begun to pay attention to people whose resumes include proven leadership in games like WoW. Clearly the “dude” here will not want to put this incident on his resume.
One of the knee jerk responses to proposing learning on the internet is that schools provide socialization for students. The “dude” here may not think of his experience as socialization, but there is no doubt he learned a thing or two about organizing people — the hard way. Because his learning was virtual, only his avatar needs to fall on his sword. This virtual venue is emerging as a major aspect of education.
