Video Games

After reading the articles and watching the video regarding video games and education I not only became more aware of the purpose of many video games but a greater role they can play in education and learning in general. I find that there is no problem with using age-appropriate and content-appropriate video games in schools as long as they compliment the instruction and do not take the place of it.

Throughout my life and education I have played many video games, some that I initially thought had no learning involved and others that dealt a lot with problem solving, making split-second decisions and completing tasks. In my early education days during our 'computer-time' we had the opportunity to engage in a couple challenging educational computer games. For example, one of my favorites was called, "Swamp Gas." In this game, the player would choose subjects in geography where they would have to answer a number of questions correctly and then would be rewarded by playing a mini-game with less educational importance to gain overall points. Again, this game was age and content appropriate and a way to move away from traditional learning. As far as "edutainment," I don't think you can go to far. In our last course, Professor Lichau mentioned on numerous occasions that entertainment is a very important aspect of any learning experience. Not only does it make it fun for your students but it can also boost retention of lessons and increase test scores. Similarly, the Dr. Fox Effect shows that lectures with high entertainment with high content produce great academic achievement.

In the article, "Good Video Games and Good Learning," Gee brings up many valid points that connect video games and education. He finds many ways to demonstrate how video games may be a great source of learning. For example, Gee states, "Good video games incorporate good learning principles, principles supported by
current research in Cognitive Science" (Gee). He backs this up by saying if video games didn't incorporate learning and problem solving, nobody would want to play them. "challenge and learning are a large part of
what makes good video games motivating and entertaining. Humans actually enjoy
learning, though sometimes in school you wouldn’t know that" (Gee). There are two points Gee makes that really resonates with me. The first of which is point 4: Risk Taking. He mentions that in school, we leave little room for risk taking, failure, and exploration in general. How can we expect to produce responsible, eager, and brave individuals if we are constantly reaffirming the idea that risk taking is not worth it and failure is the end. When in fact, I believe it should be an important stepping stone in a child's development. Just as Gee says in this discussion, risk taking can produce a number of learning opportunities and thought provoking ideas like: what did we learn by taking the risk, why did it not work, and how can we do it better next time in order to succeed? The next point I will discuss from the article is Gee's point number 16: Performance Before Competence. I would say this is very similar to a widely used educational strategy: a pre-test. Why not find out how we proficient our students are in a subject before diving straight into it. This will allow teachers to discover what areas need more work, what areas need less work and to which students the content comes easier and those who need more practice. Gee argues that performance before competence is not always how it works in schools, "[Schools] often demand that students gain competence through reading texts before they can perform in the domain they are learning" (Gee) which may not always be the most effective way.

Just a I stated earlier in the post, I think good video games can provide a legitimate and positive gateway for learning away from more traditional strategies, yet still be educational. After reading the articles, I will use many of Gee's ideas in my classroom but mold them to fit appropriately into the content. If I find a purposeful way that a video game will provide a better learning opportunity than traditional teaching than I will work it into the lesson plan. I think it all goes back to the idea of edutainment. I want my students to be rich in knowledge but I want my classroom to be rich in entertainment as well and if video games can be one of the many connections between the two than let's 'save and continue.'