Here's Why We Need Video Games in Every Classroom

Video games teach critical thinking, problem solving skills, and perseverance while building metacognitive skills.

Game-based learning can provide systematic, data driven teaching in a way that forces creative problem solving rather than rote memorization. And video games can do that in a way that is replicable, scalable, and increasingly affordable enough that we can distribute it globally and equitably.

In this talk (video below) that I gave at the Global Education And Skills Forum in Dubai on March 16, 2014, I explain how video games can move us away from an educational culture that's driven by extrinsic competition and commodified rewards. Instead, video games can move us toward a culture of intrinsic motivation, self-reflection, and mindful interaction with the world.

The talk, entitled "Critical Thinking And Video Games: Scalable Pedagogy For The Future," covers a ton of concepts including: game-based learning, gamification, Socrates, Jacques Lacan's signifiers, systems thinking, iteration, metacognition, and "scaffolding for emptiness."

Watch to the end to see how I respond to questions from George Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece.