Video games as learning tools

Did you know that the computer gaming industry made more money than Hollywood last year? All of us in the education business are surrounded by gamers who have been shaped by their gaming experiences and approach learning differently than most of their teachers. The cultural reach of gaming continues to grow. Have a listen to Video Games Setting Musical Trends from NPR’s All Things Considered for an example.

IT Conversations ran a couple interviews with gaming experts on Moira Gunn’s Tech Nation podcast recently. She interviewed
Dr. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, and talked about how games can be used as educational tools. He talked about how students engage more deeply with games than with traditional schoolwork and pointed out that gamers are often disappointed when games are too easy [clip]. When was the last time you had a student complain that an assignment was too easy?

Dr. Jenkins goes on to talk about two interesting examples of games being used in a history class setting. The first uses the commercial game Civilization III as a tool to teach about culture [clip]. The second is a simulation of Colonial Williamsburg at the dawn of the American Revolution that immerses students in the events that led up to the war. Students get a very different view than a traditional textbook can provide [clip].

Finally, Jenkins talks about the role of the teacher as a coach in an environment where gaming would be used [clip]. What he describes here would be good teaching in any context.

The second interview was with John Beck, Senior Research Fellow at USC’s Annenburg Center of the Digital Future. He talks about how businesses will have to adapt as more and more gamers move into the workforce. I think we can safely substitute “student” anywhere Beck describes “worker” or “employee.” Here are three important points that he makes:

• Gamers bring different skills to the job including increased competitiveness and greater self-confidence [clip].
• Gamers work more efficiently with many smaller tasks than they do with one large task. They are able to jump from task to task easily when they hit a roadblock [clip].
• Bosses (read “teachers”) tend to be the villains in video games. Young employees do better with strategy coaches than they do with bosses, and they need to be allowed to fail and try again. [clip]

I’m old enough to have grown up on the leading edge of the gaming generation, but I never had any burning desire for an Atari 2600 console back in the day. I think I must have missed out on the gaming gene somewhere along the line. Most teachers are probably like I am in that respect, but I think it would be wise for all of us to spend a little time with a computer game if only to try to get a better understanding of our clientele.