what do videogames have to teach us?

Since initial publication scholars have looked to Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us as a way to incorporate things kids are already doing into classroom space. Gee’s theories ultimately argue for re-imagining literacy and how it functions in education and everyday life, but many still see Gee as arguing for the incorporation of games into classes. Some scholars discussed have argued for specific games, other scholars have continued Gee’s work by pointing out how new media literacy can function in a classroom if a teacher is critically aware of their own assignments and requirements. Ultimately Gee is trying to move educational understanding of literacy beyond reading and writing skills, and scholars who take up Gee’s work argue the same thing. Each has a slightly different use of the term literacy, but all are moving toward seeing literacy as a meaning making practice in a specific space that involves ways of being in addition to reading and writing skills as they relate to the space. This re-imagining of literacy allows composition classrooms to become more meaningful to students when new media literacy skills are also worked into the curriculum as a way to blatantly demonstrate literacy skills students are already using.