I’ve just discovered your blog, so I’m commenting on an old post, but I want to thank you for this indepth look at your thoughts about what you were learning while gaming. I am fascinated by this topic of how we can use more of what video games offer our students (especially that they can fail or die and start again) in schools. As the mother of two young boys who like to game, I’ve seen such a variety of good and bad related to their play, but I’m really interested in more of the good — the learning and teamwork they use when they play, their lack of concern about failing and trying again (which actually developed as they played more games — they are now willing to try and fail more than when they first started playing games). Most of the negative aspects I’ve seen are hopefully addressed by time limits and the efforts to have them experience all kinds of activities in their day, from reading books to sports to chores, etc. I really want to do some more work on making my students’ learning more like video games, and your post has rekindled my desire to do that. Thanks!