Educational gaming

I examined educational gaming, the use of computer and video games in education.

Why all the fuss about educational gaming? Gaming is well established in our culture, it is reported that in 2005 over 154 million Americans were playing video games and the average eighth-grade boy spent 23 hours a week playing games, his female counterpart about 12 hours per week (Klopfer et al, 2009).

Games are often hard, long and complex and yet young people play them for fun (Gee 2007). In contrast, schools have problems getting students to do hard, long and complex work. Games are seen to encourage and develop many skills; key skills include communication and collaboration with other users, problem solving and processing information quickly (Facer 2003). Hence the motivation for educational gaming; if gaming is so pervasive, kids enjoy it and it develops skills valued by education, surely education and gaming should be able to work together?

The obvious approach has been using games in the classroom. Various models have been suggested.

1. Games as rewards

As students enjoy playing games, then games can be provided to students as rewards for finishing their other, 'real', work. Alternatively, games can be used as motivators to retain students at danger of dropping out of school (Royle et al 2010).

2. 'Skill and drill' games

Skill and drill games are simple games, usually focussing one skill with an emphasis on rote learning. For example, maths games that teach addition. Such games are found in schools but lack the complex nature of games that students play for fun (Hommel 2010).

3. Existing games in the classroom

Off-the-shelf games can be used in an education setting. For example, the game Diplomacy has been used to teach students about the political causes of World War I (Klopfer et al 2009).

4. Educational games for the classroom

As off-the-shelf games are designed for entertainment first, another model is to develop games that retain the entertainment but are based on educational objectives. Examples include Lure of the Labyrinth and The Small Business Game.

5. Games as supplementary resources

Even if games are not used in the classroom, there is an argument that games should be one of the resources in a school library (Hommel 2010). The games would then be used by students outside the classroom to consolidate the classroom material.

As well as looking at games in the classroom, research has asked the question "How can we make learning ... more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people see in good games every day" (Gee 2010). Such thinking attempts to see the students as a player (Prensky in Facer 2003) in a learning game. Many of the game playing ideas have parallels in the ideas of Social Constructivism (Klopfer et al 2009).

Despite the apparent link between gaming and education, issues remain in the field of educational gaming:

1. Educational game is a contradiction

"Historically, 'having fun' and 'learning' have been seen to be diametrically opposed" (Facer 2003). Using games in an educational setting is an attempt to bring fun closer to education. But if games are then changed to make them more suitable for education, by reducing or eliminating the violence for example, will they throw out the baby with the bathwater?

'Stealth learning' (Prensky in Facer 2003) is the approach of making an experience educational without the player being aware of the learning. Such an approach ignores the need for a learner to experience some awareness of learning.

Can educational games be fun? More research is needed.

2. Games: the time investment versus the return

Games require a significant investment in time. The nature of complex games being long and hard means that they may take many hours to play (Hommel 2010). A teacher must balance the time spent playing a game and the educational outcomes achieved. It may be true that game playing has many positive educational outcomes (like problem-solving and collaborative work) but if these outcomes are only 5% of the game and the rest of the time is shooting and hand-eye coordination skills, then are games the most effective way to achieve the educational outcomes?

3. Not everyone likes games

Despite the claim that games are motivational, not everyone find learning based on computer games to be motivational (Whitton 2007).

There are also gender issues with games. Games mainly have 'male' world views - 'shoot-em-up' games are an obvious example. As well social cultures come into play when looking at games. Many women just don't get the point of games or have more than enough other activities to stimulate or keep them busy without having to play games.

Research is required to identify how to make games more inclusive.

4. Negative aspects of games

Unfortunately, games often have negative associations (Baek 2008). Violent and aggressive behaviour is often attributed to game playing. There may be correlation but no clear causation (Hommel 2010). There are also concerns with students becoming addicted to games. Further research is required to find out if games do cause negative behaviours and how these negative outcomes can be avoided.

5. Fitting into curriculum and classroom schedule

A Korean study (Baek 2008) found that two major concerns of teachers were how to fit games into the curriculum and into the classroom schedule. Curriculum usually focusses on content, not the more general skills associated with gaming. This challenge is faced by teachers who are asked to produce general problem solvers and creative thinkers but also students who can pass endless literacy and numeracy tests. Similarly, the classroom schedule of 60 minutes classes is often not conducive to games that require time to set up and play.

Some conclusions:

It is clear that some (but certainly not all) games have "educational" value. How to best incorporate games into the classroom remains unclear. The variety of approaches of using games in the classroom gives teachers a range of possibilities.

I think that the current curriculum is so tightly focussed on subject content that "general" learning (such as problem solving) that does not fit into one particular subject remains unloved. We assume students get problem solving skills from school but do not have problem solving as a specific curriculum item of study.

The idea that games give educators ideas about teaching and learning is powerful. Games challenge the idea that students only learn by being given facts from a teacher.

Baek Y.K., (2008). What Hinders Teachers in Using Computer and Video Games in the Classroom? Exploring Factors Inhibiting the Uptake of Computer and Video Games. CyberPsychology & Behaviour, Volume 11, Number 6, 2008.

Facer, K. (2003) Computer games and Learning. FutureLab.

Gee, J. (2007) Good Video Games and Good Learning Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy, Lang.

Hommel, M. (2010) Video Games and Learning, School Library Monthly, Volume XXVI, Number 10, June 2010.

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Graff, J. and Haas, J. (2009) The Instructional Power of Digital Games Social Networking Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them. The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Royle, K. and Colfer S. (2010) The breadth and scope of computer games in learning: Applications to 14 to 19 learners with a specific focus on applicability to those who are classified as Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). CeDARE. September 2010.

Whitton, N. (2007) Motivation and computer game based learning. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007