Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

One of the first champions of the positive effects of gaming reveals the dark side of today's digital and social media



Today's schools are eager to use the latest technology in the classroom, but rather than improving learning, the new e-media can just as easily narrow students' horizons. Education innovator James Paul Gee first documented the educational benefits of gaming a decade ago in his classic What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy . Now, with digital and social media at the center of modern life, he issues an important warning that groundbreaking new technologies, far from revolutionizing schooling, can stymy the next generation's ability to resolve deep global challenges. The solution-and perhaps our children's future-lies in what Gee calls synchronized intelligence, a way of organizing people and their digital tools to solve problems, produce knowledge, and allow people to count and contribute. Gee explores important strategies and tools for today's parents, educators, and policy makers, including virtual worlds, artificial tutors, and ways to create collective intelligence where everyday people can solve hard problems. By harnessing the power of human creativity with interactional and technological sophistication we can finally overcome the limitations of today's failing educational system and solve problems in our high-risk global world. The Anti-Education Era is a powerful and important call to reshape digital learning, engage children in a meaningful educational experience, and bridge inequality.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. vii)
• 1 Orwell's Question: Why Are Humans So Stupid? (p. 1)
• Part I How to be Stupid
• 2 Short-Circuiting the Circuit of Human Reflective Action (p. 11)
• 3 The Limits of Human Memory (p. 21)
• 4 Mental Comfort Stories (p. 29)
• 5 Lack of Context (p. 39)
• 6 Lack of Experience (p. 49)
• 7 Pitfalls along Our Search for Status and Solidarity (p. 59)
• 8 Words Gone Awry (p. 67)
• 9 Lack of Agency (p. 75)
• 10 Institutions and Frozen Thought (p. 85)
• 11 Fact-Free Stories That Sound Good (p. 95)
• 12 Imagined Kin (p. 103)
• 13 Lonely Groups of One (p. 113)
• 14 When Not to Trust Experts (p. 121)
• 15 Evading Knowledge (p. 133)
• 16 Flight from Complexity (p. 141)
• Part II How to Get Smart Before it's Too Late
• 17 Inclusive We: How We Can All Get Smarter Together (p. 151)
• 18 Big Minds, Not Little Minds (p. 159)
• 19 Mind Visions and New, Better Worlds (p. 167)
• 20 Synchronized Intelligence: Getting Our Minds and Tools in Synch (p. 171)
• 21 Interlude to Forestall Possible Misunderstandings (p. 191)
• 22 Getting Smarter Before It's Too Late (p. 197)
• References (p. 217)
• Index (p. 237)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Gee (literacy studies, Arizona State Univ.; What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy) has published widely on the subjects of gaming, linguistics, and literacy. Gee asserts in the preface, "this book is a stealth book about education," and throughout the rest of the work he tries to explain what makes people smart or not. Each chapter is as compelling as a keynote speech, but the discussion is circuitous and the author turns to video games as a forum for problem-solving only halfway through. Since Gee has published widely on the subject of video games, it's curious that this topic shows up so late in the book. Moreover, the points he discusses in previous chapters don't clearly relate. Armchair philosophers and social activists will appreciate this title, but those interested in understanding how new technologies shape learning or schooling will be disappointed. VERDICT A thoughtfully written and provocative text, but not prescriptive enough for parents and educators to heed. The title suggests a greater potential than the book delivers.-Elizabeth Connor, Daniel Lib. at The Citadel, Military Coll. of South Carolina (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Many authors see the widespread, rapid adoption of digital media as an unalloyed benefit for education, with the lack of access to technology (digital divide) as the most widely acknowledged problem. Not so for Gee (Arizona State Univ.), who examines both the problems and positive prospects of digital technology in clear, measured prose. He begins with the basic problem of humankind's stupidity (well supported with examples). He explores the foibles of human memory, the appeal of self-deceptive comfort stories, the polarizing effect of participation in Internet forums, the need for open-mindedness (i.e., arguments and evidence), and the circuit of reflective action. Luckily, the right sort of education might just allow people to save themselves. The wealth of digital tools that have been developed over the last 30 years, along with nondigital tools (e.g., books) and real-world interactions, could be used to transform the first eight years of education. Talk, text, and knowledge mentoring are essential to the kind of informed society that is desperately needed. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. J. House Western Connecticut State University

Booklist Review

When Gee speaks of anti-education, he refers to reform that focuses on skill-and-drill standardized tests and college education as status or mere vocational training. He laments that we have lost the true meaning of education in the service of personal enlightenment and broader social good. As long as we hold these anti-education viewpoints, the use of technology in classrooms will follow the old paradigms of education rather than a more expansive view needed to develop twenty-first-century innovation and critical thinking, argues Gee, education innovator and author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (2007). He begins by examining the dumber impulses we've exhibited in recent years, from political polarization to the destruction of financial systems and the environment, then looks at what we can do, going forward, to correct missteps and make ourselves smarter and better able to contribute to finding solutions to the crucial issues of our times. Gee advocates for using the tools of technology and what he calls synchronized intelligence to rethink education, careers, and broader issues of social justice.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Thinking about thinking in education and the digital age. The subtitle suggests that the primary focus of the book would be the roles technology can play in the classroom. Gee (Literacy Studies/Arizona State Univ.; What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, 2003) has a larger agenda, as he gives ancillary consideration to the technology involved and instead takes a broad look at ways of thinking and learning. He weaves over the line between the ills and the benefits of technology, finding examples of rapid collaboration and increased agency through online forums, social media, webcams video games, search tools, virtual worlds and similar connections. At the same time, he considers the shifting relevance of traditionally defined expertise as noncredentialed "amateurs" leverage the Internet to produce expert-level work. Gee's anecdotal stories are worthy examples of "thinking outside of the box"--e.g., the project to make modifications to the popular game The Sims in an effort to use it to simulate the life of a poor, single mother. The prevailing tone around these anecdotes, however, leans toward a frustrated lecture about these innovative ideas being the exception to the rule. For the most part, it seems, we have become a culture of nincompoops with the cognitive tools necessary to become smarter, but we're either misusing them or disregarding them. "Do we have the will to save ourselves?" asks the author in conclusion. "Will we each sink in our own boat, however large or small it is, or will we bail water together in a journey to a better future?" Gee makes a compelling case for reframing methods of teaching and learning, but the pedantic tone may put off some readers.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.