You know them. They show up to school and want to sleep through first period to help their swollen, bloodshot eyes. They claim to have camped out all night at Best Buy to be the first one with the latest version of World of Halo Grand Theft Madden Battlefront 15. Their grandmothers just shake their heads, their mothers hope that one day they will leave the basement for a nice girl, and their teachers tell them that their minds will turn to mush if they don’t turn the video games off and pick up a book.
While worries of violent and aggressive behaviors, stifled thinking, self-alienating behaviors, and undermined role identities have been documented, there has been a shift in the value of video games towards education. Games have been heralded as beneficial educational tools since the Piaget days of the 1960’s, but are just now taking root in the classroom in video form (p425). Games with puzzles, strategy, and role playing can provide:
- Motivation
- Enhance effectiveness of learning
- Transfer of knowledge to other contexts
- Development of ideas with real-time brainstorming
So the shift is happening from video games at home to video games as learning tools at school. Are you ready as an educator? Games can be effective as learning tools, but the way we deem them valuable is through assessment. Is the content effectively designed so that the student learns? Is there a real objective with a reliable tool of measurement or is to focus on content too narrow?
The reality is that games can provide continued practice much like the flashcards of the old days, but can also provide opportunities for students to construct their own concepts. Imagine a video game that is engaging with powerful interactive multimedia, motivational, and actually facilitates mediated learning. As far as processed based learning, the contextual games train students to confront a question, make a hypothesis, and then prove the hypothesis. Discovery and achievement are fundamental to the games and they can improve memory and accuracy (p425). Moreover, video games can lead to an interactive experience in which the student learns by doing with user-centered design features (p426). Hmmm, sounds like critical thinking to me.
Games with the intent for learning content are not new, just new to the classroom in the form of video games. Are you ready for the change? I know that I am ready for games in my classroom, or better yet, at home. I like the idea of having students play these games in their free time at home as a nice supplement to more traditional lessons (if logistically possible). In fact, this reading has prompted me to seek out websites that promote the best websites to find educational video games. Here is another blog I found listing some cool games with thorough descriptions: http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/03/virtual-learning-25-best-sims-and-games-for-the-classroom
Feel free to post your favorite websites for video games that are actually beneficial to learning in the classroom! I will collect them and post them separately in the next month.
Hong, Cheng, Hwang, & Chang (2009). Assessing the educational values of video games. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25, 423-427.
superteacher2012 
I like this one:
http://www.energyville.com/
Your entry opening and the selected picture was very creative and a great hook to get the reader to continue reading.
I believe that some games can be beneficial to learning and, on the other hand, some video games can be violent such as Halo, Resident Evil, Battlefield, etc, thus I think we as educators should be very attentive what exactly we are using in our classroom.
According to the American Psychological Association, “playing violent games correlates to children being less caring and helpful toward their peers. And these effects happen just as much for non-aggressive children as they do for children who already have aggressive tendencies. Children spend a great deal of time with violent video games at exactly the ages that they should be learning healthy ways to relate to other people and to resolve conflicts peacefully.”
The above quote pretty much sums up the negative effects on children from some video games. Almost all games involve some kind of violence. However the benefits of the educational video games as means of interaction and also as a supplement to the instruction cannot be denied. Of course if I were to use educational games in my classroom I would first review the game before introducing it to my students and would be sure that there is no violence involved in any type of representation.
-Ekaterina
I think you bring up many valid points. First, we need to educate our teachers about the effectiveness and usefulness of implementing video games in our classrooms, so they are ready for the shift in teaching. I often think that video games get a “bad rap”. Of course video games in general cannot be all bad. We are not talking about using Call of Duty or Halo in our classrooms, we are talking about using well planned, thought out, tested and objective approved video games. As long as games are used in the right context, with an appropriate amount of time, and with specific objectives to be met, video games should absolutely be used in the classroom! Furthermore, if video games are a way to get our students engaged and interested in learning, then why not? Student engagement can be such a challenge for teachers today, and I think that any new (or old) method that will help our students through the learning process should be welcomed in the classroom.
You also brought up a great question about how we assess the effectiveness of using video games in the classroom. I don’t think there is one great answer here. If we set clear objectives and debrief after the use of video games, hopefully we will get a clear sense of whether our students understand the objectives and material. With that said, I also think that teachers should be willing to abandon using video games if it is not an effective tool for instruction. It has been said before, don’t use technology for technology’s sake.
The article discussed the pro’s and con’s of 21st century learning, and, like with other areas such as technology in general, if we don’t “jump on the bandwagon”, we are going to get left behind. I am not arguing the video games are going to be central theme to the future of teaching, but we, as teachers need to be open to using new methods to teach and engage our students.
I gotta ask you this because its bugging me. Did you feel you had to cite page numbers in your blog post? Do you think that a blog is more or less formal than using Blackboard?
I think we are so academically in certain habits that such things become automatic.
And BTW I loved “World of Halo Grand Theft Madden Battlefront 15.” Classic. Makes me think of http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e08-make-love-not-warcraft.
I felt like I had to include sources because we are fresh from a class on it and I did think that it would be required. While an informal blog, I still needed to cite my research that I used. I have never seen South Park, so I am not sure if that is a compliment or I truly am sophomoric. I’ll check out the video.
Personally, I had an addiction to Sim City, Oregon Trail, Amazon Trail, and many other simulation games growing up. Thinking back on the hours I spent (or wasted, according to my mom), sitting at the computer trying to rebuild part of a town after a tornado hit, or asking Teddy Roosevelt for directions to the nearest source of rubber trees in the Amazon basin, I can see that without much focus or purpose, my time could probably have been better spent doing homework or exercising. However, after reflecting on Hong’s (2009) description of the research done on digital gaming in the classroom, I realized that perhaps all that time wasn’t wasted after all.
For me, the draw was immersing myself and my imagination into a world where I could preside with a godlike sense of omniscience and control, exploration, and suspense based on my own decision-making. Whether or not these microcosmic activities gave me the desired understanding of the concepts, they did at times push me to think critically within the virtual realm of the content at-hand. I remember comparing my brother’s cities with my own in Sim City and how he always had a dominant, inter-world military force, while I spent great pleasure increasing the attendance at the sporting events and building up residential areas with the addition of zoos and parks. If nothing else, these games can be telling of a students’ personal interests and can aid teachers in creating curricula that that identifies and maximizes the intrinsic factor student interest involved with learning.
If a teacher can get students to become both extrinsically AND intrinsically motivated in a learning experience, they have hit the jackpot as far as I am concerned in instructional methods. I think that as long as the same discretion, balance of use, and teacher prep is involved with these as with other teaching practices, then students will greatly benefit from digital gaming’s availability to them.
Such a fluent blog entry :):) I think you summarized the articles that we read this week very well with using your point of view. I agree with you I will use video games in my future classroom because they are really effective tools to support the instruction, motivate students, improve 21st . century skills, allow students to construct their own knowledge and control their learning environment. Also, Ekaterina said children spend too much time on screen with playing violence games. So, why don’t we encourage them to spend this time with playing educational games. This is one of the most important reasons why i will use video games in my future classrooms.
I love using games in the classroom when I know that there is strong educational benefit for my students. Like the person who responded above I love The Sims (haven’t played Sim City) I am curious if anyone would see educational value in games such as this. I know that there are college course that meet through Second Life and have entire class periods devoted to these meetings. I have not experienced the class myself but I have checked the game out. I could see this game being of interest to older students, maybe some younger ones as well but I would be concerned about the ease at which adult content can be found with in that particular game.
During my Classroom Action Research course her at U.C. we took part in an online simulation game that required students to take on the persona of another person either living or dead from any time period in history. The students had to portray their character in a variety of situations and activities. In order to do this they needed to know their character, this required research on the part of the student and encouragement from the teacher/mentors. This is a great game to envolve and interest students.
Video games in the classroom – are you kiddin’ me?
I have always felt that playing video games was purely for excitement and enjoyment, AND for kids only. I saw little if any societal, cultural, educational, or spiritual value in video games. In fact, I felt that they did more harm than good by (1) creating a lazy and obese generation, (2) wasting time that could be better spent doing homework or working on a job, (3) giving our children an unrealistic view of reality, and (4) brainwashing our children into acting out what they see on the video games, which could prove quite detrimental depending on the game’s content. I must admit, however, that part of my negativity towards video games could be the result of my mediocrity when it came to personally playing video games or anything similar in nature.
After reading the assigned articles around this topic, I must agree with SUPERTEACHER2012 that there is much value associated with playing video games, and that all teachers should give serious consideration toward including video games as a part of their pedagogical strategies. Assuming that the video games to be used in the classrooms are carefully selected, there use can have a positive and potentially profound effect on student learning. It is believed that video games positively contribute to enhanced critical thinking skills, brainstorming skills, student motivation, competitiveness, increased student interest in learning, communications skills, and collaborative skills. Since video games are so effective at engaging students in the learning process and captivating their minds, it is worth it for teachers (both new and experienced) to take that ‘leap of faith’ and give it a try in there classrooms.
I agree completely with what you are saying; video games can be used as a means to intice the students to become motivated in the content. I thought that you were right on the money when you said that the success of video games in the classroom depends on how they are implemented. Just like anything else, whether it be a smartboard, textbook, or computer, the benefits of using video games depends on how they are implemented into the classroom. All of these things are tools, and should be viewed that way.
Moreover, I thought that you had a great idea when you noted that you would like to see video games used as a way to supplement the material that is taught in the class. In my experience (although this was not the intent) this is already occurring on a basic level. When I taught American history, I was amazed by how much prior knowledge many of my students had in regards to WWI and WWII. Upon getting to know them better, I discovered that a lot of this knowledge came from playing video games, specifically Call of Duty. In this regard, I found that the video games were quite beneficial to the overall class, however, problems could arise. The information that is presented in these games at this point was meant for entertainment purposes not for educational purposes. In this manner, not all of the information was entirely correct and in that manner can be dangerous. Moreover, as a teacher I did not control what was included in these games and thus could not control the information that the students’ were exposing themselves to. This being said though, I did notice a big difference in performance and motivation in regards to the students who played these games compared to the ones who did not.
I really loved this blog! Especially about how you can spot the gamers in your first period class, its so true! I would just like to add the following from our prompt in class:
Sardone and Devlin-Sherer (2010) state, “Highly emotional events, sometimes omitted by teachers, might be taught through the lens of immersive, interactive digital games because they can stimulate discussion more easily and lessen the weight of the subject matter” (p. 420). As teachers, do we really want to lessen the weight/the importance/the severity of these big issues to our students?
** We as teachers absolutely do not want to lessen the weight of real world situations no matter how difficult they may be. It is our responsibility as educators to prepare the youth in our schools to effectively function in the societies of today and tomorrow. If these ‘highly emotional events’ we speak of are gauranteed to be difficult for children to handle, then why not tackle them head on in a safe learning environment, when the students have support from their teachers and their friends. It doesn’t make sense to try to avoid difficult life situations in the classroom, because when it happens later in life, the students then may have no idea how to deal with their emotions, etc. I do not think that games or anything ‘artificial’ is the answer to solving real-life problems. Unfortunately, most of the games which students are playing outside of school are not very beneficial to their mental or emotional growth.