The 5Ws and H of Playing [Video] Games in School: Part 1 – Why Play Games?

In the first of a series blogs on Playing [Video] Games in School, I thought I’d pose and try to answer the question, “Why play [video]games in school?”

The obvious answer is, “To motivate kids and make learning fun!”

I don’t know how many times I asked my kids, “How was school today?” and either got a blank stare, a dirty look, “Boooorrrring!” or worse for a response. Was it the teacher, the subject matter, the instructional materials, or my kids? Probably a little of all of these factors. Having been a high school teacher, I realize it can be difficult, if not impossible to motivate all students and make all subject matter fun or otherwise interesting, but the prevalence of my kids’ negative response is what really concerned me. They were associating boredom with schools and schools with learning and thus, started to believe that learning was boring. Now that’s tragic. If anything, I believe that schools should foster a love for learning, particularly at an early age when kids are so impressionable.

Which brings me to another point: Over the past five years of studying game-based learning, I’ve met a number of educators in K12, higher education, and business and industry who argue that learning should not or does not need to be fun. Education (and training) is serious business, they say, and should not be taken lightly. Such attitudes have even led some to coin terms, such as “serious games” to refer to digital video games that are designed specifically for educational and training purposes. While I agree that education and training is serious business, I can’t help wondering what may have happened to these people while they were growing up. You can ask any one of my former and current students; I take teaching and learning very seriously, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun along the way-does it?

Personally, I think that if you don’t make educational video games fun and entertaining, you may fail to reach the potential of games to facilitate learning. On far too many occasions, I’ve met educators who initially supported the development and use of games who later asked the game developers to reduce the fun factor or otherwise make the gameplay less challenging. They felt that the very essence of the game that made it fun and entertaining was detracting from the educational aspects of the game. Certainly, there must be an appropriate balance between entertainment and education in an educational game, but seriously, if an educational game is not fun and entertaining, what’s the point? If you don’t think learning should be fun or if you don’t think an educational game should be entertaining (or can be too much fun or entertaining), then I suggest picking another tool and approach for motivating kids and enhancing learning. Personally, I think learning should be fun and if you choose to design or otherwise integrate the use of video games, the game should be entertaining (seriously!).

But I digress; back to the original question…Why play games in school?

Certainly, there is something about video games that engage kids (and may adults for that matter). I’m sure you’ve seen kids spending hours and hours online or at the arcade playing video games. So, it makes sense to me to see if and how we can utilize the technology to better engage students in school and to learn. In a study published in 2006, the Federation of American Scientists concluded that:

“The success of complex video games demonstrates games can teach higher-order thinking skills such as strategic thinking, interpretative analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, and adaptation to rapid change. These are the skills U.S. employers increasingly seek in workers and new workforce entrants. These are the skills more Americans must have to compete with lower cost knowledge workers in other nations. Games and simulations can also serve as powerful “hands-on” tools for teaching practical and technical skills, from automotive repair to heart surgery. In addition, today’s students who have grownup with digital technology and video games are especially poised to take advantage of the features of educational games” (p. 3).

Two major findings by the Federation that directly address the question, “Why play games in school?” include:

● Many video games require players to master skills in demand by today’s employers such as thinking, planning, learning, technical skills and decision making that are not necessarily assessed in today’s national and state testing programs; and

● There are several attributes of games that are particularly useful for learning such as (a) contextual bridging, (b) high time-on-task, (c) motivation and goal orientation, even after failure, (d) providing learners with cues, hints and partial solutions to keep them progressing, (e) personalization of learning, and (f) infinite patience.

While looking for empirical evidence to help answer the question, “Why play games?” it’s important to note that considerable research does indicate that games are effective for facilitating learning under various conditions. Since the mid 1980’s, a number of reviews of research on the educational applications of video games found that games have either a positive or at worst a mixed effect on learning.  Such results tell us that what teachers do before and after gameplay (in other words, what they do to integrate games with school curriculum) may be just as important as the game itself.

In my opinion, mixed research results from studies comparing the use of games to other forms of instruction also suggest that asking whether instruction with video games is better (or worse) than instruction without video games may not be the right question. Thousands of media comparison research studies indicate that the design of instruction may have a greater impact on student motivation and learning than the media or system used to deliver the instruction. Wouldn’t you prefer and learn more from well-designed print-based instruction than a poorly designed 3D immersive, multimedia computer program?

The Federation of American Scientists does call for, “a robust program of research and experimentation… to enhance the development of games by stimulating transfer of the art and technologies of video games to education and learning systems” (p. 5). Note, however, the Federation calls for research to enhance the development of games, not to determine whether or not games are useful. How and when to best use games may be more useful questions to asks, but before we get to such questions, I do think it’s important to answer the question, Why Play Games.

To this point, I’ve expressed my fundamental reason for playing games in school: To foster a love for learning by making learning fun and entertaining. I’ve also noted important reasons for playing games identified by the Federation of American Scientists as well as referenced several reviews of research that support the use of video games to enhance learning. There are other perspectives on why we should play games in school. Prensky, for example, proposes a number of reasons based on the differences between today’s Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants (Prensky, in press, 2001a, 2001b). I’ve also worked with a colleague to delineate neurobiological reasons for playing games (Atkinson & Hirumi, in press).

My purpose here is not to provide a comprehensive review of literature; rather to forward some insights, stimulate thought and provide a few references because ultimately, your own answer to the question will determine if, when and how you to play games in school to facilitate learning among your students.

References

Atkinson, T., & Hirumi, A. (in press). The game brain. In A. Hirumi (Ed.). Playing Games in School: Video Games and Simulations for Primary and Secondary Education. International Society for Technology in Education.

Dempsey, J.V., Rasmussen, K., Lucassen, B. (1994). Instructional gaming: Implications for instructional technology. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 16-20 February 1994, Nashville, TN.

Federation of American Scientists. (2006). Harnessing the power of video game for learning. Retrieved January 30, 2007 from http://fas.org/gamesummit/

Hays, R.T. (2005). The effectiveness of instructional games: A literature review and discussion. Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division (No. 2005-004). Retrieved October 7, 2007 from http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA441935

Mitchell, A., & Savill-Smith, C. (2004). The use of computer games for learning. Retrieved July 23, 2007 from http://www.m-learning.org/archive/docs/The%20use%20of%20computer%20and%20video%20games%20for%20learning.pdf.

Prensky, M. (in press). Educating the millennial generation. In A. Hirumi (Ed.). Playing Games in School: Video Games and Simulations for Primary and Secondary Education. International Society for Technology in Education.

Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved September 27, 2003 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.

Prensky, M. (2001b). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II. Do They Really Think Differently? Retrieved September 27, 2003 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2902912/Prensky-Digital-Natives-Digital-Immigrants-Part2.

Randel, J.M., Morris, B.A., Wetzel, C.D., & Whitehill, B.V. (1992). The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: a review of recent research. Simulation and Gaming, 23(3), 261-276.

VanSickle, R. L. (1986). A quantitative review of research on instructional simulation gaming: A twenty-year perspective. Theory and Research in Social Education, 14(3), 245-264.

Vogel, J. J., Vogel, D. S., Cannon-Bowers, J., Bowers, C.A., Muse, K., & Wright, M. (2006). Computer gaming and interactive simulations for learning: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(3), 229-243.

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