In an effort to reduce the amount of time young people spend playing video games, China has banned students from playing them during the school week and limited them to just one hour per day on Fridays, weekends and holidays. Have given. The new rule came into effect on September 1, 2021. From my perspective as a video game designer and scholar who specializes in game-based learning, I don’t see a need to limit video game play among students during the school week. Instead, I see a need to expand it – and to do so during the regular school day.
Video games are one of the most popular mediums of our time. One estimate suggests that by 2025, the global gaming market will be worth USD 268.8 billion annually – significantly higher than USD 178 billion in 2021. Money spent on gaming does not facilitate a virtual escape from the real world. Scholars such as longtime literacy professor, James Paul Gee, have shown time and again that video games can be used to facilitate learning in the K-12 classroom. Education writer Greg Toppo reached the same conclusion in his critically acclaimed book, The Game Believes in You: How Digital Plays Can Make Our Kids Smarter.
a long history: The use of video games in the classroom is nothing new. Many people who went to school in the 1970s to 1990s may remember the iconic video game The Oregon Trail, which made its classroom debut in 1971. Lewis and Clark. The game came with the release of an electronic version of the video game Pong, table tennis, in 1972, just before the founding of the video game industry. Even though educational video games have been used in classrooms for over 50 years – and despite the fact that research shows that educational games can be effective – they are not so common in classrooms today. Many educational games have been released since the days of the Oregon Trail. Some of the most popular are: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Math Blaster!, Zombies, iCivics, Dragonbox Algebra, and History Maker VR. Most of the games are for pre-K to elementary school students. Here are five reasons why I think video games should be used in every classroom:
1. Video Games Can Help Students Stay In STEM: In 2020, the President’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology found what the nation needs to build the STEM workforce of the future. One reason students drop or drop out of science, technology, engineering, and math programs is the difficulty of introductory courses such as calculus. The University of Oklahoma has developed a calculus game that can help students succeed in calculus. Research has shown that student mastery in calculus increases when using a purposefully designed learning game, such as Variant: Limits – another calculus game that was developed at Texas A&M University.
2. They Provide Experiential Learning: According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, students acquire 21st-century skills, such as creative problem solving, important to the workforce of the future. Games like Dragonbox Algebra, where students solve math problems in an imaginary environment, can help students master skills such as critical thinking. In games like Civilization, the player can be a civic leader and direct the prosperity of nations. ART: In Mecenas, learners can become members of the Medici family and patrons of the arts and successful bankers. Students learn through doing and can acquire skills and knowledge through experiential learning that cannot be obtained in traditional classrooms.
3. Players Learn From Failure: Play is a natural way to allow students to fail safely, learn from failures, and try again until they succeed. Some games, like Burnout Paradise, make failure fun. In the game, players can crash their cars – and the more spectacular the crash, the higher the points. It essentially allows players to learn from their mistakes, correct them, and try again. The late video game theorist and author Jesper Juul writes in his book The Art of Failure that losing in a video game is part of what makes the game so appealing. Failing a game makes the player feel inadequate, yet the player can redeem himself immediately and improve his skills.
4. Engage in Student Content: The average time a student takes to learn in a class is only 60% of the allotted class time. Extending the school day has been shown to be only moderately effective in giving students more time to learn. A more effective way to maximize time for learning is through time spent on the task. When students are interested and care about a topic and it is relevant, they are curious and engaged. It provides a better learning experience. In the classroom, teachers can engage students. But when it comes to homework, teachers have to rely on other ways to motivate students. One way is through play. Educational games can be designed to improve motivation and engagement, giving students more time on the task.
5. Games make complex knowledge fun: Educational theories state that knowledge cannot be passed on to students; They create knowledge in their mind. Learners build on previously learned concepts to build higher-level and more complex knowledge to make it their own. The periodic table of elements is challenging for many students to learn and remember. However, learning a complex three-dimensional matrix with 27,624 values is most easily accomplished by middle school students in the popular video game Pokémon. The gist of the game is figuring out how to combine 17 different types of attacks when battling other Pokémon. Each Pokémon has one or two types of attacks that they can use. Players do not learn the various possible combinations by studying a large table containing 27,624 entries, but by playing the game. Through playing the game, students gradually build up an in-depth knowledge of the game and develop basic skills, such as literacy, how to compete with grace and sportsmanship, and abstract thinking. Pokémon was not developed as an educational game, but its design principles – and that of other popular video games – can easily be used to design video games for classrooms that enhance their educational experience.
(This article by Andre Thomas, director of the LIVE lab and associate professor of practice, Texas A&M University College Station, first appeared on The Conversation.)
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