It's not the game, it's the experience of playing the game!

I wish I read David Warlick's blog entry on Games in Classrooms? or Classrooms in Games? before class yesterday. He comments that younger teachers grew up with video games as part of their culture, so their comfort level with games is leading to greater integration of games in the classroom. Warlick's concern is that games might get placed in the classroom for the sake of having games in the classroom. He believes

"... that the key to using games in our classrooms is not the game, but the experiences of playing the game that make it so compelling. If we can identify and understand those experiences, which are probably pretty fundamental, and then integrate those experiences into our learning environments, then we may hit on something profound in terms of preparing children for their future."