I have long been a
proponent of the use of video-games in education. As a mother of
students with learning challenges, I was often surprised at the
intensity my sons applied to their video-game pursuits; failing and
retrying a multitude of times without hint of frustration. This same
intensity was absent from their school applications. My sons frequently
failed to apply themselves to a school based assignment out of fear of
failure no more threatening than that which they faced undauntingly
during gaming. Seeing this contradictory behavior made me realize that
something about the virtual environment of their games engaged them more
deeply in the process while disengaging them from the stigma associated
with failure. They approached the game with a determination to conquer
it. I am convinced that this engagement and determination is what is
missing from traditional educational approaches. If we can find a way to
simulate that through educational use of game play in the classroom, I
believe we can revolutionize education.
Few
studies have been conducted on the effective use of video-based game
play in the classroom. Part of the reason for this is the negative
attitude toward game play by educators in general. “Many school leaders
and teachers react negatively to video games and gaming culture, bashing
video games as diversionary threats to the integrity of schooling or as
destructive activities that corrupt moral capacity and create a
sedentary, motivation-destroying lifestyle” (Halverson, 2005). Halverson
goes on to say that the problem is exacerbated by the standards-driven
environment we have embraced in the light of No Child Left Behind and
other such legislation. “Standards specify what to teach; school leaders
and teachers construct efficient pedagogies and learning environments
to teach it.”
An
and Bonk (2009) discuss the components necessary for developing
educational games that will engage student in learning. They are
proponents of a context-based rather than content-based approach. By
this the authors mean that learning needs to be authentic and
meaningful, surrounding a realistic situation or problem, rather than
disconnected facts to be committed to rote memory. “Context is more
important than content since learning is a process of ‘developing
abilities to see, think, do and be in the world,’ rather than
accumulating discrete facts (Squire, 2005b, p. 19).” This seems to be in
direct opposition to the standards-based curriculum of the classroom,
which demands a content-first approach. However, if approached
correctly, I believe video-games and simulations can be used to teach
directly to standards and can improve student retention and learning.
Steen
(2008) cites research that demonstrates that learning increases
proportionately with our interaction with the material. According to his
example, a teacher utilizing visuals with lecture and textbook reading
assignments might expect students to retain 50% of the materials being
taught. This teacher can dramatically increase student retention to 70%
by incorporating a class or small group discussion. Learning increases
to 80% if students are allowed to experience the material. This is the
realm of the video-game.
Part
of the resistance to video-game use in the classroom is that there is
not an efficient way to assess or measure learning, and in fact,
students might learn at different rates or fail to apply what they have
learned to school-related concepts. Halverson (2005) states that video
games “provide inefficient and unpredictable environments for learning
school-based material and have learning outcomes that are difficult to
map onto curriculum standards. Learning in endogenous video games can be
a protracted and indirect affair with a steep learning curve when
compared with standard curriculum units on mathematical fractions,
Egyptian history, or European expansion.”
Halverson
(2005) goes on to explain that the cure for this lies in the way
teachers facilitate the lesson. He feels that teachers can extract
valuable lesson plans from existing commercial video games through
several steps. His first suggestion involves mapping the learning
potentials of commercial games to existing standards-based content.
“Commercial endogenous games require an integrated lesson design that
incorporates the depth of gaming insights into standards-based school
environments.”
The
second step outlined is to change the structure of the traditional
classroom to allow for facilitation of learning from the game to derive
the desired content. “The role of the learning environment in a
traditional school setting is to provide a context to make structured
content accessible to students; the role of the learning environment in
an endogenous game-based setting is to scaffold prompts for helping
students construct legitimate analogies between what can be learned in
the game and what schools need to teach” (Halverson, 2005).
Next,
Halverson (2005) suggests using the built-in risk-taking and controlled
failure of the games as an authentic measurement for assessment of
learning. “Designing environments to integrate games into schooling can
thus draw on the assessment devices already built into games. The
technology of multi-player gaming, for example, generates tangible
records of prior game moves in the form of discussion threads that can
be used to spark reflection on the assumptions behind earlier game moves
(see, for example, the Rise of Nations Universe site). Learning
environment designers can use these public representations of game-based
information to discuss school-based learning outcomes. The arguments
players develop online to defend in-game moves open valuable windows
into the players' thinking processes. The outcomes of game-play also
provide authentic artifacts of student learning that can be used as
summative evaluations of learning.”
Halverson’s
(2005) final suggestion may seem a bit over the top, but it makes sense
if educators are to attend to the other suggestions. He proposes that
in order to best learn how to use commercial games in education,
educators need to play them. “…nowhere is the current generational gap
in technology greater than in game literacy, and while asking
school leaders and teachers to play commercial video games may be a
stretch, integrating game-based learning experiences in their
professional development may help them see the merits of gaming from the
inside.”
I
am convinced that educators need to devote some time to research the
potential for use of commercially available video-games for education,
and instructional designers need to become aware of the need for
authentic game-based learning experiences and build games designed to
meet standards-based instructional needs which are engaging for students
to play.
References
An, Yun-Jo
and Bonk, Curtis J. (2009). Finding that SPECIAL PLACE: Designing
Digital Game-Based Learning Environments. TechTrends, Vol. 53, No. 3.
Halverson, Richard (2005). What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming? Innovate. Retrieved April 22, 2012 from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=81.
Steen, Henry L. (2008). Effective eLearning Design. Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol. 4, No. 4.
