The last few days I’ve been intrigued by a number of posts referring to the use of games in education. I will start off by stating that I wasa gamer. I liked playing games butmy habit has been curtailed in the last few years by the growth of my family and the fact that it took up too much of my time.\. However, as my sons begin to get old enough for gaming, I’m looking at getting back into it - salivating at the thought of an gaming console or the Wii but knowing that it has an addictive nature to it that, until you play, you don’t see.
I am intrigued by the idea of gaming in schools because I find it ironic that finally someone is seeing that there is a place. As an ADHD person, I found games to be a great thing. I could concentrate for hours playing Space Invaders and the other arcade games or, once I had a nintendo, those games. I even developed a better handheld device for myself because I found the small ones that came with the game didn’t work too well. They hurt my thumb and I couldn’t move quickly enough. I did get good at Frogger and Donkey Kong.
As Dungeon and Dragons began to take hold and computer were making their way into the system, I began to play an online version where the players basically had various online “roles” and, depending on their choices, their fate in the world would unfold. It was fun and the whole idea that the world was not earth but more Tolkien in nature really made it fun. I did start in Everquest but, alas, a MEd and more children put a stop to that quickly. I still liked to play games such as SimCity and the action games based on movies. I then moved on to The Sim’s and more sophisticated computer games. Recently I’ve begun to get involved in Second Life and World of Warcraft. I also have a few Star Wars games that I enjoy just for frustration relief. I’ve also found some of the games that are present on Agames, NeoPets, and other children’s sites to be fun. Line Rider was introduced to me by some of the kids at school. It is a very interesting game with many different skills needed
to be successful. I really enjoy playing games with my kids, trying to outdo them. Thus far, I’ve been able to stay ahead except for the game Bubble-Struggle where my two daughters have unfairly been practicing when I didn’t know and can now soundly defeat me!!!
We enjoy playing games like The Sims together, designing homes and seeing what happens when you light things on fire! My pyro-son likes to see his sister’s house start on fire - it’s pretty funny! (Not sure what learning is going on there!)
I agree that games can be a benefit for the classroom. I’ve even used the game Risk to demonstrate that even the soundest military strategies can run into problems when taking the unknowns like weather and climate into account. I’ve had students design games to help them understand different aspects of Shakespearean plays or novels. As for playing games for educational purposes, I’ve used some of the BBC games to introduce students to various things dealing with world history.
Personally, I’ve learned that games can provide all kinds of learning opportunities but there are some things that, no matter what the game, I believe need to be put out in the open before games are used in the classroom.
#1 - Games are not real. You can simulate all you want and make it as real as possible - you are not affected. So, you can see what happens if you do A or B or C but, as an individual, you are not affected. So, when my son plays a new game, he will gladly sacrifice his lives knowing that he is learning things about the game that will increase his success in future plays, he can restart with new lives and it doesn’t hurt him at all to have the Penguin jump off the edge.
#2 - Emotions you experience are different than in real life - you will not know how you will react until the actual event takes place. I have seen this played out in many different fashions from the first time someone actually drives a car and not a simulator to how people react when there is actually an emergency. I’ve watched people trained to deal with emergencies freeze in actual events although they had done all the training and simulations.
#3 - Along the same line as 2 - your emotions when playing a game are not the same as when the event is actually happening to you. In the game, you are trying to win. In real life, there are many more things going on than trying to beat the game. In RL, you feel a multitude of things while in game life you usually feel very little. I can kill, maime, cheat or do whatever to win in a game and then walk away. It is a game. In real life, I have trouble killing a mouse!
#4 - In a game, reactions are one dimensional and end whent the game is over. In life, reactions always have multiple ripples that you sometimes don’t even see. Even when I am in SL, I know that in RL I’d never be able to stand for as long as I do and those bad landings when I fly, I’d still be recovering from the first attempt. Now, the conversations are real but not the same as in f2f.
#5 - Games have taught me different things than what was going on in school. Now, I can still remember various stages in a few games that I played and what was needed to defeat the stage. I remember what I need to do in different games that allow me to win. Granted, I haven’t really been able to delve into the multiplayer - multistation games or mpg but I will definitely be looking more closely at them. However, what I did in school did give me access to knowledge that I have used outside my teaching. Ex - I once owned a company and had to rely on numerous skills in order to do that and some of the basic skills I learned in school did have applications. The whole idea of learning to touch type is thanks to school. While I watch a number of people two-finger type, I realize that my taking typing in highschool was a blessing ( although I really didn’t like it at the time!) Who knew that such things would figure to be so much a part of what I have experienced.
Games can provide a number of ways for students to engage and learn different things. Using games in school has a place. However, thinking that because I can remember various stages from Frogger doesn’t mean using a game will help me with my math. I still have difficulty with my timestables and I’ve played various games with my children learning timetables. So, as with all technologies, we need to be sure of what we want when we begin to use games. What is the
purpose of the students playing the game? What do we want them to understand and how will they then demonstrate that they have, in fact, come to a specific understanding? I don’t mean test them but we must be able to assess in some way why students have used the game.
If I had more time, I’d play more games but as I’ve grown and found all these responsibilities, I’ve had to make some choices about time although, like I mentioned, I can see being able to get back into it in the near future (OH YEAH!!!) I’m looking forward to this on a personal level and because, as a kid, it was one place where being ADHD
helped me to excel. Now as an adult, I’ve other things to get my focus, like this blog!
As I’ve read about using gaming more in schools, I haven’t heard exactly what we want to accomplish with them. What are the objectives? As I ask my kids, So What? What will doing this affect learning and understanding? What is the benefit to the student? What about the addictive nature of gaming? How do we ensure that we don’t create even more problems
for some students? How will these games fit with learning and understanding? These, along with many other questions, need to be discussed as we explore the use of games in education. They do have a place, I’m just not sure how they fit at this time.
