Tangential Learning and the Educations Game Entertainment Game Rift

First of all I would like to say that this is only a short post on the subject of tangential learning which includes some reading I am undertaking along with some interesting videos on the subject. In actual fact the Extra Credits video was one of the reasons I took on this task for my final project.

So what is tangential learning? Well in short it is a form of learning we see something that peaks our interest (for example a reference in a game) and we then research it to find out more (see the point made about Sephiroth made in the Extra Credit video below). This is a great way of learning as it is completely self driven and will almost always be something that interests us. However the drawback is that there are virtually no ways to properly vet and monitor this process on an individual or group basis (seeing as some people might not be interested in that particular reference or may miss the reference all together.)
Some of the readings are addressing this problem for both tangential learning and other forms of learning that suffer in the same way. I will have a post up about them when I have reached their conclusion.

Another topic covered in these texts and videos is the divide between games for entertainment and educational games. I tend to agree that in most educational games the fun elements are forsaken for the educational ones. This can leave a bad taste in the mouths of anybody hoping to have fun learning by playing these educational games. "Video games have an extraordinary educational potential, but the main goal of a video game should not be changed to make a game education rather than being fun, because above all, games should be fun" (Portnow, 2008).

My current train of thought is to form my final product with 3 of the 4 keys 2 fun in mind (Lazzaro, 2015) and focus first and foremost on making an enjoyable player experience. Then I can inject the learning to make the experience educational while keeping it entertaining.

Please take a look at the following videos as they have great examples of tangential learning as well as some of the other topics covered in the post. The first is the original video created for EDGE and the second is the re-recorded version for Extra Credits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrTHrwyxQ

References

Portnow, J. (2008) The Power of Tangential Learning. Available at: http://biblioteca.ucm.es/revcul/e-learning-innova/5/art387.pdf (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Lazzaro, N. (2015) The 4 Keys 2 Fun. Available at: http://www.nicolelazzaro.com/the4-keys-to-fun/ (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Daniel Floyd (2008) Video Games and Learning. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Extra Credits (2012) Extra Credits - Tangential Learning - How Games Can Teach Us While We Play. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrTHrwyxQ (Accessed: 9 October 2015).