Monday, October 11, 2010
Video Games and Education
Floyd fails to convince me of the value of fun games in education. While he raises some valid points, namely, self motional learning, he clearly misses the pressure afforded teachers in this current climate of educational accountability.
Floyd coins the phrase, ‘trangential learning’ to refer to those who choose to self educate because they are introduced to a topic or subject through a different media. He espouses that game developers could tap into this educational stream by including snippets or subtly including references about relevant topics to educate gamers. He believes that self motivation is the key to educational success and that as gamers are already interested in the game and thus they are equally interested in the topic, the key is to channel this interest so that the playing experience enriches their lives and/or expands their horizons.
While I agree with Floyd that self motivation is the key to learning success, I disagree with his ideas on 2 basic levels:-
Firstly, my experience as a mother of teenage gamers, is that they are not interested in anything beyond playing the game and when I point out the historical realities in different games, they show little enthusiasm or interest. I am left wondering what percentage of gamers feel the same way. They just want the fun element and I think Floyd is confusing gamers with those who are interested in the game with those who are interested in the topic and they are not necessarily mutual because a successful gaming experience does not rely on knowledge of the game topic.
Secondly, as an educator, I want motivators that will connect with a large percentage of my students. I agree with Floyd, in that students learn better if they are inherently interested in the topic but will this interest be enough to motivate a large number of my students to self educate? My concern is that Floyd’s ‘trangential learning’ will only affect a small percentage of my school cohort and I need motivators that will target a larger audience.
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Obviously, it is attractive for educators that using video games can stimulate students’ studying motivation. However, in our teaching practice, how can we ensure the effectiveness of incorporating video games into our teaching? I agree with you on the problems of whether motivation is on learning or just on games and how we maximize the number of our students motivated by game playing.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes it is difficult for teachers to encourage our students to step back from the immediate experience of the game and focus on the content they are supposed to learn from the game. They may be too involved in the game playing to give thoughts on teachers’ questions and interventions. When this situation occurs, should we stop our students playing games and give instructions emphasized the concepts embedded in the games? If we do so, does it contradict the purpose of making students self educated through play?
As a teacher in senior high school, another concern for me is that students have different preconceptions about video games in education. Some of my students would think it has little to do with serious learning. Bringing video games into teaching may result in their different attitudes towards the class, which means they may take my class less seriously.
We still need to think about how to overcome these obstacles in realizing educational function of videogames as a facilitative tool for teaching. (by Ronda)