Calling all gamers! All ye obsessed with addictinggames.com, Halo 3, World of Warcraft, and all those other games I don't play. Also paging any and all students tired of sitting in class day after day and "learning" to the test. A new form of education has been found: the video game. A New York City public school has renamed itself Quest to Learn, and has begun teaching 6th graders in a way they understand. Video games are used to teach everything from mathematics and typing to strategy and teamwork. Assignments include the creation of a new game and evaluation of other students' games.
A New York Times article compares school to a video game, noting that "school itself is one giant designed experience." As students spend more and more time playing games (an average of two hours each day, a Kaiser survey showed), they are less and less interested in a typical learning environment. Additionally, recent studies have shown what parents know to be true: kids learn outside of school in addition to inside. Kids' learning is not limited to the time they spend in the four walls of the classroom, and new educational strategies take advantage of their other activities. Learning through video games, for example, makes failing, and learning, fun. When a student loses a game, they want to try again in order to ultimately beat it. This encourages students to learn through their failures and accomplish more in depth learning.
The New York school Quest to Learn is taking my preference and putting it into a currently applicable situation. Students who love video and computer games get to work with them all day long. They still learn math and science, history and English. In fact, they test just as well as the other students in their district. While they are learning, however, they are having fun. Test scores are important, but so is enjoyment. If students do not enjoy to learn, are they going to continue testing their abilities through college and throughout their life? Is the program at Quest to Learn the type of program we need to institute around the country to facilitate learning in the youngest members of our generation? Will their fun in middle and high school encourage them to continue learning through fun? Will their gaming experiences actually teach them more about cooperation and respect?
10 comments:
This does sound like a very interesting idea. Sitting through 6 hours+ of lectures is a tedious pretty-much-everyday experience. Although, I'm not sure if actual video gaming in replace of lectures would be efficient in getting a good amount of education in.(Maybe I'm being a little judgmental because I've never played an educational video game before. I mean I've seen them for children, but have yet to seen one for our age/grade.)
But as I recall from last year, in AP Psychology we used "clickers" (remotes with lettered buttons) to reply to answers displayed on the Smart Board while studying for the AP test / our finals. This kept many of us intrigued, instead of just plain re-reading our textbook or notes. Or even answering the same questions on paper. I admit, I would have probably fallen asleep if we had simply went through a huge "review lecture" for two straight weeks. Somehow, the use of electronics in even small ways keeps us more intrigued.
There are already classes in university were you play games to learn essential skills. I Quote of University of Florida's website: "21st Century Skills in Starcraft is an 8 week entirely online course that uses the popular real time strategy (RTS) game Starcraft to teach valuable 21st Century Skills through a hands-on approach With society becoming increasingly technology-based and fast-paced, it is important for professionals to be highly proficient in skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, resource management, and adaptive decision making. These skills are fundamental in Starcraft and therefore make the game a highly effective environment for students to analyze and take action in complex situations."
Games are a great way to teach students as it is a great visual, audio and mental stimulant.
Encouraging kids to play video games is simply fueling them for failure in the future. This is simply a way for kids to get the "easy way" out of life. When they go to college, and realize that they aren't learning from a video game, how will they be able to learn purely through lectures and notes? Moreover, since video games are being encouraged, they will be more inclined to play video games because Quest to Learn has taught them that yes, video games do have benefits. Although this type of learning is fun and may encourage kids to learn even more, these skills will provide of no use to them even when they apply for jobs as they will not be used to an eight-hour work day in which they are to examine spreadsheets, not fill in excel tables with Mario and Luigi helping. According to a USA Today study of first-year students in College that played a mere forty minutes or less video games each day the, "lost study time translated into first-semester grades that were 0.241 points lower on the 4.0 grade scale." Although these kids are learning, it is obvious that video games are detrimental to one's academic future in general. Yes, staring at an English professor for hours may be boring, but in the long run, it's hours of studying and learning self-discipline to do homework and study for tests that will help kids to get into the dream school they have always wanted to get into.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2007-09-18-videogame-GPA_N.htm
Although many people will probably look down on Quest to Learn in New York, initially thinking that video games are bad for children and should not be associated with school since it interferes with a child's learning ability, I believe they are essential to learning. I'm not agreeing with the Quest to Learn's idea to use video games to help children learn since it is a little extreme, but I do think that a child's environment shouldn't just be at school and studying all the time either. Sometimes, taking a break and playing some video games is actually healthy, taking a child's mind off school work temporarily and relieving his or her own everyday pressures from school. That doesn't mean they can play for hours and hours, but still having some video games is healthy. You wouldn't want someone to be an extremely stressed out person, cause who knows what they'll do if they break. Also, some video games are proven to have some benefits. By a study in the University of Rochester, gamers had a much faster reaction than non gamers. This means that by playing some video games, it helps by training the brain to analyze things faster, which could be very beneficial for a child to comprehend things when they are in a time crunch, like taking tests. Video games shouldn't be despised and playing them in moderation can lead to a child's success.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=814080&page=1
For me i am on the edge of this because there are many aspects to why this is a good choice and why this is a poorly made choice. The reason why i approve of this is only an the bases that when students in school learn things, many of the students don't retain the information they learn but more of just put it into their short-term memory for the moment until they have a test and then begin to forget some of it as time goes on and they don't put those learned skills to work. Although this isn't the story for everyone, when learning say math students just try to remember it for the test and then just forget it. However, if students were taught through the games they may enjoy what they are learning and find that oh they are using that math skill ,they learned, in life. The big problem is students find school boring and really don't want to take the time to learn what these things they are learning are good for.
Now, the problem i have with this is that students may just play the game and not even think about learning but rather they just want to win it and do whatever they can to do good in the game. When i think of when i play games i don't think while i am playing if i am learning anything right now or any of those things having to do with school, i just play and try to beat whatever i have to in the game. I just feel students won't take it serious and feel they can just go through the game with out learning, which really will hurt them later on in life.
I feel as though having kids learn via videogames is only going to hinder and hurt them in life. I highly doubt that their bosses (when they have jobs) will ask them to complete their jobs by playing videogames. I appreciate the idea because it is trying to have kids learn in a way they can, but life is not a videogame, nor do you play a videogame for everything you do. School is supposed to help kids with the what the real world is sort of like. School without videogames teach kids more in not just school subjects but in lifeskills. I don't agree with the idea of "school via gaming" but I appreciate the intent.
I agree with Gurjote and Stephen that having kids learn through video games isn't going to help them later in life.
But I also think incorporating video games into learning could also be a valuable asset when it comes to basic skills like reading, writing, and math. I remember practicing my typing skills in school when I was in middle school and our class would use a program on the computer that would turn the typing practice into a game. Although the game wasn't that fun, it did keep me entertained and practicing until the end of the period. Although it's not a perfect solution, I believe that incorporating video games into learning can be helpful in teaching students.
The problem with these educational video games is that they're totally oxymoronical. Video games are supposed to be fun, and for many, school, homework, and even learning are decidedly not fun. I sincerely doubt that kids who like video games would choose to go on a "Quest for Learning" when they could be playing Starcraft II. If video games really do build skills for life, as Chris pointed out, well then great, and isn't that grand. But one motive we could percieve in the creation of an educational video game is the effort to bridge the gap between fun and learning, which, from the position of a kid, is a mortal sin. One knows that it's never good to mix business with pleasure, and that's exactly what this "fun learning" game is doing. Let's not forget that according to recent studies, all children learn the same, that is, there are no "visual learners" that are special from everyone else, etc. While video games might be mentally stimulating, they have no place in our educational system and should be kept sacred, fun, and seperate.
Trying to get by on life by the ac of using a video game will not help you later in your life. By allowing students to lean through video games the children will not learn any life and home skills that will be needed in life. Say once you have your own house and need to pay bills and see if your paycheck is correct, you can not go to video games for the answer. Students will be lost and not know what to do. Now , if they had children playing more educational games, say like Leapfrog I believe it is, that is better for younger aged children. But most middle school games do not try to incorporate the act of having mathematics and language.
Learning how to play video games in school will not help you out later in life. Even if these video games have some mathematics , once you are done with the game, chances are you will probably be so immersed with graphics and all the fun that you will forget what you have "learned". Many games now a days do not offer the range of math and language in it, rather it seems to bring that knowledge down. An once you are out on your own in life, turning to a video game will not help you answer your question. This idea will probably die down in a short matter of time. Let's just hope most schools are smart enough to NOT implement this into their education
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