<p>According to the survey, the majority of middle and high school students (51 percent of students in grades 6 through 12) indicated that "games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Forty-six percent said they'd learn more about a subject if information were presented in a game format; 44 percent said gaming "would make it more interesting to practice problems"; and about a third said that "the use of games in schools will help them learn how to work in teams and see the direct results of their problem solving activities."</p> <div id="square"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=3,0,0,0" id="Ad" height="280" width="336"> <param name="movie" value="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="quality" value="autohigh"> <param name="bgcolor" value="none"> <embed src="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration%202.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584" wmode="transparent" quality="autohigh" swliveconnect="FALSE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="280" width="336"> </object> <noembed>&lt;A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"&gt;&lt;IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;</noembed> <noscript><A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"><IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"></A></noscript> </div> <p>Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they'd like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would "like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum," according to the survey.</p>

<p>According to the survey, the majority of middle and high school students (51 percent of students in grades 6 through 12) indicated that "games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Forty-six percent said they'd learn more about a subject if information were presented in a game format; 44 percent said gaming "would make it more interesting to practice problems"; and about a third said that "the use of games in schools will help them learn how to work in teams and see the direct results of their problem solving activities."</p> <div id="square"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=3,0,0,0" id="Ad" height="280" width="336"> <param name="movie" value="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="quality" value="autohigh"> <param name="bgcolor" value="none"> <embed src="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration%202.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397" wmode="transparent" quality="autohigh" swliveconnect="FALSE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="280" width="336"> </object> <noembed>&lt;A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"&gt;&lt;IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;</noembed> <noscript><A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"><IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"></A></noscript> </div> <p>Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they'd like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would "like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum," according to the survey.</p>

"What the animation does is it assists the children in visualizing the action," explains Mitchell, who teaches <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nuuanu.k12.hi.us/G-1/public_html/index.html" target="_blank">language arts enrichment classes</a>. "The animation is a way of them developing the picture so they relate that to the writing, to what they hear, what they see, what they feel." Technology, she adds, "gives you one more way of teaching something."

"Looking for real-world relevance has to do with students being interested in what they do, knowing that it's useful outside of school," says Kaninau. "The experiences are not contrived or in isolation, but they're a part of a larger learning activity. Without those connections, it won't be meaningful, and it'll be forgotten tomorrow."

"They love it," says sixth-grade teacher Geraldine Kajitani. "If you start with ... hands-on activities and things that are fun, their attention is focused." And once that happens, she says, it's a snap to get them to study some of the drier material because they'll relate to it and remember it.

When asked what they learn by using social networking sites, the students listed 'technology skills', followed by 'creativity', being 'open to new or diverse views' and 'communication skills'.

Our problem is not that we can't teach 21st century skills unless it is content specific, it is rather that <span style="font-style: italic;">we are content specific to begin with.</span> When we compartmentalize our content in an effort to put it on a pedestal, we compartmentalize our learning of it, so that it has no relevance to the larger picture. 21st century skills, like the term or not, have that ability.