Games, Learning, and 21st Century Survival Skills

Digital games hold out great potential for human development. There is no reason to think about games simply as “fun”. At the same time, there is no reason to equate learning with being “serious”. Games and learning, at their best, engage humans at a deep level of pleasure (Gee 2005). Play and learning are primordial human urges. Unfortunately we have come to take it for granted that adulthood will kill play and schools will kill learning as a human pleasure. These assumptions are particularly dangerous in the 21st century.