Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

Video Games and the Classroom

July 15th, 2014 · 1 Comment

James Paul Gee’ article, Good Video Games and Good Learning focuses on the learning principles incorporated by video games serving a challenging and educational purpose. He proposes that “challenge and learning are a large part of what makes good video games motivating and entertaining”. It is an interesting concept, considering some of the opinions floating around Canadian education today. Just last week the topic of discussion in my inquiry class (EDUC 452) centered around the fact that 40 is the new 50 in regards to student performance. Students, who are now coming close to meeting the 50% passing requirement, are pushed through to the next level without being required to complete the necessary work.

Is it possible that these same students who hate challenge and learning in the classroom, are then heading home and spending hours being challenged and vigorously learning on a different platform? Gee points out how some of the criticism aimed at video games claims that “what you learn when you learn to play a video game is just how to play the game” but he argues that along with playing the game, the player inhabits its surroundings and engages with sixteen various learning principles.  I find this article very interesting and it challenges a lot of the preconceived notions I hold about video games. I seldom played video games as a child, and when I did the occasional time at a friend’s house, I’d always feel guilty that I was not playing outside or better yet, doing something more productive with my time. I would walk away from a two hour game of Mario-Kart or Super-Mario, feeling as though I had wasted too much time playing around with video games and had now successfully contributed to the rotting of my brain. Looking back now, I had no concrete evidence to back up my reasoning and my sentiments towards video games had arisen out of what others had told me or what I had seen on the news.

In taking a look at the fifteen principles present in good games, I now see video games presented from an entirely different angle. Previously, I had thought that a person’s interaction with the game was a purely responsive one, without any initiative or truly intellectual engagement on part of the player.

 

References:

Gee, J. (2005). Good Video Games and Good Learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85 (2), 33-37.

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1 response so far ↓

  • nkarpluk // Jul 15th 2014 at 10:01 pm

    I especially liked how he broke down the different learning principles that should and could be adapted into the classroom. Me: I’ve never been a huge gamer, but I am 27 and grew up alongside SNES, N64, Gamecube, Xbox360, etc. (despite not owning a system until I was already 18). I think there is a lot we can learn from videogames as educators, as you and the article have said. Despite psychologists being employed to make videogames more addictive, there is a certain element to games that make them attractive enough to extend your playing time of them. Videogames, like “good” fastfood (sweet AND salty), give you enough to keep playing without giving you enough to be satisfied.

    Classically,The METROID games used to show you the protganist of the game, Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter of some renown, at full strength, and then within the first two minutes of each game, those powers would be somehow stripped and you would spend the rest of the game finding, reacquiring, or discovering your lost powers while mastering them in baby steps. This is an example of Gee’s eight learning principle: “Challenge and Consolidation”. In the case of Samus Aran, you had to run before you could morph into a ball and roll through small tunnels, and you had to charge your beam cannon before you could charge super missiles. And then there was the spinning in an electric ball which was basically light if you were good enough at it which I never really was, especially in METROID PRIME… but I digress!

    Videogames DO do a good job of getting those playing them to master basic skills before moving forward. If you can’t kill the most basic monster in METROID, well you just aren’t going to move on to save the universe are you? You will never beat the ’93 Chicago Bulls in NBA 2K14 if you can’t string together more than two consecutive passes. To keep this short, I will just say that there is one other huge thing that videogames do do better than us educators.

    Videogames give us the most basic instructions and say “here now try it out – go bananas – and who cares if you die, fail, etc.” The learning occurs as the practice occurs. There is very little front-loading. I mean they used to come with instruction manuals (I loved collecting them), but they were no more than 20 pages which was usually 65% pictures. You go in with little information, they provide a tiny bit more just to get you going, then you are off, learning on the fly, failing, adapting, and growing. Isn’t that how learning should be?

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