Educational Discourse

I’m a gamer. I love games. I enjoy kicking the ………. out of some evil doer and purging the streets, universe, country of evil. I also like challenging my reflexes and testing my cranium. I’m Kelv Chevalier in 2L who’s still trying to find the educational group that I’ve read about; I’m learning the WoW; I play StarWars – not quite a Jedi master; Sims; a few online kill and crash games. I understand they are hard work and require much thinking and all those other things. They’re fun and distract me from my other worries if just for a while. When I’m playing, I’m playing. It takes a lot to pull me out of the “game trance” that I get into.

I’ve been gaming since the 70’s when PONG came out. Now, the games today are much more suffisticated and challenging. The graphics are way better if your computer can handle them. Now my kids and I play games and most of the time, I can still kick some butt. Occasionally, my 13 year old daughter surprises me and sets me up for an early exit. It happens, especially when I haven’t spent the time playing like she has on a game. Of course, were the tables turned, I’d be doing the same thing.

With the WoW, we are at the beginner level but I expect that in a short time we’ll be able to figure some things out. To start, we’re going to play one character – there is my 11 year old, my 13 year old, my 5 year old and myself who will be learning with the character. My 14 year old is checking out some other role play games and even looking at the teenage version of 2L. We all like the distraction that it gives us and we have learned to cooperate fairly well together. I know my kids like to play different games. My girls are into the more finesse, problem solving type of games while my sons are into superhero/battle type of games and they don’t mind sacraficing a player to see what will happen if you ….. go through door three where there is something oozing under the door. You can always start over! Maybe I should get some funding to carry on a research project in relation to female and male gaming!

I’ve played other games on line, like chess (at which I am brutal! I think some 5 year old from somewhere beat me in 4 moves! So embarrassing!), card games and simple tactical games. I like being able to have a human opponent to play against.

We haven’t been able to convince my wife that we need a game station of some sort. She’s probably right that it would eat away too much time and I’d never take out the garbage. In time, I believe that we will end up with some sort of station, probably  through the computer. We have 4 Apple’s in our house and use them regularly for much more than computing. They are becoming part of the entertainment center for the house. This, I think will eventually lead to gaming through the computer on tv with wireless handhelds and action centers. In fact, we’re looking at doing television through the computer, set up with Apples new itv tool.

I  like the fact that I can escape, for a bit, from the “stressers” of life and play at whatever game I choose. Now, the great thing about games is that when you make a fatal mistake in a game, you can just start over and make sure you don’t make it again. If you’re really into a game, you can go to various sites, get clues, hints and various other tricks to use in completing stages in the game you are playing. I don’t do this as I prefer to stumble my way through the levels but I know some people who play more than I do who use these sites regularly.

As an educator, I can see some use for certain games, especially when they involve strategies, collaboration and no real violence. You would have to make sure that the learning outcomes are clear and that there is a way to assess what is going on throughout the game. That, I feel, could be a sticking point for some people because, like it or not, teachers must demonstrate that the tools they are using allow for some type of assessment, preferrably ongoing, authentic assessment. This will be the area in which we need to work in order to bring games from being an out-of-school activity to an inschool teaching tool.

Another area that will need to have some work is the public idea of what “learning” is. For some reason, society continues to see the use of technology as not “real” learning. With the advent of Web2.0, we have some very powerful tools that will allow students to access information, share ideas, collaborate and publish in ways they haven’t bee able to previously. This is the area, I believe, that we need to concentrate our efforts not on convincing people that bringing games into schools can be educational. I don’t think they will have the impact that these other tools will have on the undertanding and learning that can happen within schools.

Back to my family! It is common to see anyone of the 6 kids from age 4 up playing on the computer, chatting, writing and interacting. However, it is also common to see them reading the paper, reading a book, playing a board game or playing with various other toys around the house. The idea that “gaming” is the only thing that kids do might just be a bit of an over-exaggeration. They do a lot more. A whole lot. Gaming isn’t the only way they entertain themselves. Learning from that, we, as educators, need to vary what we do, using a great many strategies and methods so that students are challenged to push and search for new understanding. Gaming is a great escape and you might be able to escape for a bit but you cannot hide forever, no matter how great the other world might seem.

Life is much different from gaming, I think. Maybe that’s why, as I get older, I don’t do it as much as I use to. There’s too many exciting things going on in the real world, I don’t need to go anywhere else. Plus, I don’t have the time to dedicate to playing although with the WoW I may be able to find some “more” time in my day for this 

Kelly