You Are Invited
Gamifying the Classroom: How the U.S. Department of Education Is Using Video Games and Common Core to Transform K-16 Education
A lecture by Mary Grabar, Ph.D.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Talk begins at 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served.
The Solarium, 321 W. Hill Street, Decatur, GA 30030 (Oakhurst Neighborhood)
The U.S. Department of Education is pushing the takeover of education to the next level by imposing Common Core on college and promoting video games in the classroom, K-16. (Yes, the senior year of college is considered grade 16 now.) Video game designers, who work at their own companies as well as in academic departments (and often at both) and receive grants from the federal government and technology-aligned non-profits like the Gates Foundation, argue that games motivate students and “cultivate dispositions.” Textbooks and classroom lectures are being replaced by video games that teach subjects like science and literature, but even more so impart lessons in “social and emotional intelligence” and “social justice.” While technology companies and professors of “gaming” benefit from this gravy train, students will lose in the ability to focus, to read, and to think for themselves.
Mary Grabar taught college English for 20 years and has been writing about education and Common Core for 10 years. She is a regular contributor to the Selous Foundation, where her 4-part series on “Transforming Education beyond Common Core” appeared earlier in 2015. She is founder and executive director of the Dissident Prof Education Project (www.dissidentprof.com), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) education reform initiative. She is currently a resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization in Clinton, New York.
This lecture is made possible through the generosity of the The Devereaux F. and Dorothy M. McClatchey Foundation, and is sponsored by the Georgia Chapter, The National Association of Scholars.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Drinks and refreshments will be served. Free parking is available in the parking lot and on the street. Handicapped accessible.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Ann Hartle (ahartle@emory.edu)
