Video Games in Education
Who would have thought thirty years ago the impact video games would have on popular culture. What began as pinball, Pong, and Pacman is now a multi billion dollar industry! One that has been taken out of the arcade, moved into the home, and now transplanted in the classroom.
There are many forms of video games. Some do not have an end. Meaning there is no way to "beat the game." Modern video games are an experience, a way to interact with real people, and many have educational value. This blog will argue that video games have real educational merit and it's power in the classroom cannot be ignored.
Video Games in the STEM Classroom
Shawn Cornally an educator at IowaBIG (Iowa's first project- and competency-based school) argues that games such as Portal 2 have an incredible amount of educational value. Portal 2 is a physics based game where the user is outfitted with a gun. The gun is not your typical weapon meant to kill or maim, rather it creates “portals.” The portals are entrance and exit points in the game. The user fires a portal into a wall, it creates a hole (the entrance) and then fires another portal, which creates the “exit.” The user then has to navigate through a level. Imagine being in a maze where barriers do not exist, this is Portal 2.
Shawn Cornally writes, “My most successful implementation of Portal 2 is in physics. We use a screen capture program to record our session, while the person playing the game jumps down a pit into a portal at the bottom. The second portal is positioned on a wall where the player is then ejected at great speed. The game has effectively changed the direction of the player's momentum vector, but not its magnitude. Students go nuts trying to verify this: they measure parts of the room, they estimate the size of the gun, all to get accurate physical numbers to quantify the game's physics.”
He is able to teach these concepts to the students in a non-abstract way. They are able to experience these laws of science on a real level and through trial and error can master these concepts.
Reading, Writing, and Programming
Mitch Resnick argues that young people are very comfortable with the technology they have. These technologies are used to texting, browsing, and gaming. They use the tools that have been designed for them. How do we get the students to design the technological tools to be creative? They need to be able to code. There are many web based tools in order to get students to code. These tools are very dynamic. One of these web based tools is called “scratch.”
Scratch is developed by MIT. This is very basic coding for children. Mitch Resnick claims that this will be a jump off point for students. They code to learn, it opens up many opportunities to learn more about coding. He claims this is like reading and writing. When you learn to read and write, it opens the door for to learn other things. When you learn to read, you can read to learn.
Harnessing the Power of Video Games to Reengage Boys
Ali Carr-Chellman, fourth grade teacher, and instructional designer is currently working on a project entitled "Bring Back the Boys." She argues that boys are losing interest in school. This loss of interest is causing many not attend higher educational institutions. She argues too many boys are taught
by women in classrooms and are having few interactions with male teachers. Ninety-three percent of students are educated by women. Boys need more interaction with male role models, especially in the classroom.
According to Ali Carr-Chellman boys have been turned off or out of sync. She points out that there is a zero tolerance policy toward boys. No rough housing on the playground, no plastic guns or the like. Boys are not allowed to write about violence, leveling up in video games, etc. Instead they write poetry or what their female teacher wants them to write about. This zero tolerance policy places many of these boys in the psychologist's office.
Ali Carr-Chellman also points out that kindergarten is the “old second grade.” She argues that there is a compression of the curriculum. By first grade you should be able to read a book of about 35 pages with few pictures. If you do not complete this task you will be placed into a special reading program. Four to five boys per every one girl inhabits this type of room.
What steps can we take in order to combat this lack of interest in school? She claims that better games need to be designed. Many educational games are basically digital flash cards. Educational games are uninteresting to students. The reason is lack of proper design. Contemporary games such as “World of Warcraft, ” “Minecraft,” and “Call of Duty” have massive budgets. Budgets that dwarf a typical educational game. What we need is more money funneled into video games. Video games that have educational value.
Conclusion
Although this blog scratches the surface of the power of video games in the classroom. The power of video games cannot be ignored. Educators need to set aside the old paradigms of education and focus more on what students are doing in the virtual space. Video games harness creativity, allow people to interact, and problem solve.
