When I first read the article on the importance of gaming, I thought that they were advocating for playing more games in the classroom. As I read further I began to see that this wasn't necessarily true. I understand that there are some goo components to video games that can help students to reach a higher level of thinking, however, I don't believe that what they are learning in the games can all be transferred to real life.
I realize that there are some ways that games can be useful, especially when trying to get students to think about more complex ideas, focusing, and strategically planning. However, this is not the case for some games. I feel fairly confident in saying that the Sims does not help in these skills. This is not the only game either, there are online games that I play that have a free trial. These are games on bigfishgames.com or zone.com. They are slightly entertaining and although some do require some of the skills mentioned like MyTribe or My Kingdom for the Princess, they are not very educational. Trying to use games in the classroom should be through educational games. These may not be as fun for the students, but not always what is fun is conducive to your learning.
Also, as for the motivation aspect, there are some people who do not like these types of major online games and other offline games. Personally, I do not because I have horrible hand eye coordination and I get easily frustrated with games that are too complex, so I usually give up after awhile. During the time that I am playing, I am not getting anything out of that time spent except more frustration for those types of games. I believe that there are better ways to try to get students involved in higher level thinking and to get them to focus in the classroom.
The things I believe that we can do is to have more interactive and in depth projects that get them to look into a topic they have a passion for as well as to get them focused on an educational math activity. Also, there are interactive programs such as geogebra that give students a chance to see the concepts in geometry that they may be looking at in the classroom. I think the games idea is interesting and would apply to some students, but I don't think that all students would benefit from this type of activity inside or outside of the classroom. I think about it like this, when I read a book for fun, I can tell you almost everything that happened, this is not always the case when I read a book for class. I don't always learn about the structure of the book. So, thats why I don't see gaming an important part of everyday life, fun as it is, I don't see it as transferable knowledge for all students.
I think your points about gaming as it stands today are true. Some people don't like the amount of dexterity practice required to play fast-paced RPG or FPSs, for example. And by far, most games have minimal transferable learning. But I don't really want to judge the potential of gaming on those games.
ReplyDeleteI think the availability of engaging, educational games will continue to improve. I am pretty selective about which games my younger kids play. There are some really fun iPod/iPad games that my kids like as well as Fruit Ninja, but involve puzzle solving or quickly doing math problems. Really.
Memo to game developers: As a parent, I won't pay for Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds. But I do pay for educational games. I think a lot of game developers already are working from this memo.
I like your point that not all students may enjoy video games. They can become frustrating easily (and usually are for me). But this is where I really like Pete's comment that as educational games improve, they will become more engaging. As future educators, I think we really have to consider what games to use in the classroom and how to seek out these games. They seem to potentially be powerful tools; it will just be a matter of finding which games are the best.
ReplyDeleteKathlyen,
ReplyDeleteI really like your point about the difference between reading for fun and reading for school. Doing things for fun like playing video games seems transgressive. Teenagers only have a certain amount of time every day to balance homework, extracurricular activities, sleep and video games. Part of the appeal of the latter definitely comes from its impingement on the time of other activities. By making video games mandatory, I think students will look upon it as a chore and be much less inclined to participate.
Perhaps there may be a way to differentiate the methods by which we allow our students to learn, and award points for, that would allow all students to be able to enjoy how they learn. What are some methods that you might enjoy learning through as opposed to video games? Do you think it would be possible to give everyone the same opportunity for education through such a spectrum of differentiation?
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should trend the boundaries of video games in the classroom carefully - the mediums exist rather exclusively and that is not without reason. Video games are meant to be an escape, an expression of our own time management and how we choose to utilize. Yes, some games are educational, but the majority arent. However, that doesn't mean we should dismiss their value entirely - by and large, the reason people play certain games can be manipulated to convince those same people to play along with the lesson plans we construct in the classroom. The key is to identify the characteristics of video games outline by Gee and utilize it appropriately in our classroom settings.
ReplyDeleteKathlyen, I may be missing the essence of your concluding point, but I guess that part of me wonders why our target shouldn't be to create some classroom experiences that, like the book that you describe reading, allow students to get a little lost--and happily so--inside them. Like a good book or compelling play, I think we all crave that kind of engagement with an experience and there's no reason why students can't do purposeful work that has this "all absorbing" nature to it, at least some of the time. Maybe this brings us back to Gee's point, which I believe you see very clearly, that we would serve our students well if we imagined projects that felt authentic, capturing some of the essence of real work (as opposed to too much of school for most of us, where words like "real" and "authentic" don't describe a lot of what we experience).
ReplyDeleteI think that trying to capture some of these qualities that Gee enumerates, and that you and several of your colleagues notice here, is a task that is worthy of your time and thought over the coming year...