James Paul Gee’s article “Good Video Games and Good Learning” has provoked many of my childhood memories about gaming and learning. I remember playing my first video game when I was in Grade 5. It was a role playing PC game that was immensely popular at that time. I can still feel the excitement and the fear when I turned on the computer screen. Needless to say, I “died” many times and failed many tasks. However, what kept this experience alive in my memory is not the excitement nor the storyline, it is the skills that I learned from playing this video game which have benefited me throughout my teenage years.
Gee’s article provides the potential links between playing good video games and school based learning. However, I would like to take this notion back for a bit and discuss about how video games enhance (teach) their players the essential (or advanced) computer skills and knowledge. When I played my first video game, computers were a new technology. Learning how to use a computer was quiet difficult sometimes. I adored people who could type very fast or easily go surfing on a computer. To be able to play my first video game on a PC, I forced myself to learn how to install the game, how to properly turn on the game, and how to fix it whenever it does not display correctly. During the game, I learned to type faster and read faster as the game was an interactive game and I was always so anxious to know what happens next. Before long, my computer skills were improving rapidly. As a result, I was able to obtain a higher grade in my computer class and develop an interest in computer skills and knowledge. These skills have helped me in many occasions and served as a fundamental knowledge for many other knowledges I was interested in.
Another interaction with gaming and learning that I had occurred during my 8th grade (I am not an advanced game player since I don’t have a good fine motor skill). At that time, I was still in ELL and was looking to improve my English. During the summer time, my friend suggested me to play an online game called “Gundum”. I was very fascinated by the setting of the game and was quickly immersed in it. Soon after, I found out that everyone uses English to communicate with each other (it was a team based game). I was terrified at that moment as I did not want other players to know that I cannot speak English that well. The solution I found to this problem was to always have a dictionary beside me so whenever I was not sure how to spell something, I could quickly go to the dictionary to check for the correct spelling. At the end of the summer vacation, my spelling had improved enormously.
Video games have benefited my learning process in many different ways. I would encourage my students to play good video games as I know they will learn from it. However, the issues of content appropriateness and time management are still some areas educators and scholars need to focus on.
Sarah Wu
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1 response so far ↓
domlee87 // Jul 22nd 2013 at 10:55 am
Thanks for your comment Sarah. I was reading Gee’s “What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy” and many of the things that you wrote in your post reflect my early development as a pre-teen to even now as an adult, as I still play videogames on a regular basis. I think one of the key points in his introduction to his book is the different ways in which he was forced to think and adapt due to his new experience with video games.
When I was younger, like you I was merely learning how to develop my computer literacy skills, whether it had to do with typing, learning how to use programs, surf the internet and what not. However, with time, I began getting “addicted” or “obsessed” with online gaming in a player versus player environment, not because I enjoyed curb-stomping my opposition (although that can be fun at times as well) but because of the teamwork, strategy, critical thinking (yes it exists) and creativity that was involved in the learning and decision making processes. Many of the most popular games nowadays do not rely on single-player experiences but on these competitive environments that draws the players back for more. Even when you look at the Facebook games that people play, the infamously annoying Candy Crush tracks where your progress is in relation to your friends and family, giving a competitive spirit to the puzzle game that might not be as addicting if it was solely a single player experience.
So how do you incorporate that level of competitiveness, creativity and critical thinking in the classroom (C cubed j/k I won’t steal that term)? I’m not sure any of us have the answer to this problem. However, what I think needs to be explored are class-based projects and assignments that really incorporate the class as a group (not in a divide and conquer kind of way). I remember when I was in secondary school taking French 12 my teacher had us shoot videos en francais and at the end of each term would present an Oscar for the best video in the class. To this day, I still recognize that as my finest piece of work produced in secondary school as my group of 6 members (plus many more who were extras) spent hundreds of hours in the production of the video which required reshoots, endless editing, and the creation of props and location scouting.
At the end of the day, nobody wants to look bad and almost certainly nobody enjoys the feeling of losing. Should we try to create a classroom community that is both fun, challenging, and rewarding I think many of the major aspects of video-gaming should not be ignored.
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