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Feature: What can we learn from video games?

I recently read an article on Kotaku that got me to thinking about the educational value of video games. Of course there’s the classics like hand-eye coordination and sense of direction, and we can’t forget the faithful counter-argument that they rot your brain, but what’s there to find if we really dig into this question?

That Kotaku article I linked above provides a few interesting quotes from gamer-parents on the topic at hand. One parent wrote the following:

I have a 4yo, he’s been playing xbox since 3 and wii since 3 1/2. first we were amazed at his ability to use the controller, it taught him some colors and the associated letters. then we were surprized at his ability to associate controls to the display to solve puzzles in lego starwars/batman/jones. Now he is intently learning to read to play games with stories, also he has learned to lengthen his attention span knowing he cant skip the mission briefings, he’s also learned teamwork and humility when playing with a 6yo, who is not so willing to work together and share. He stays at his grandpas on sundays where he has been playing MW2 [Modern Warfare 2], he killed 6 guys in a round last sunday. Now he started playing the H3 [Halo 3] campaign and is moving right along. if he asks for help we make it a puzzle or a math problem or a spelling bee for him to move on to the next mission. oh and hes also learning how to use various maps. He wants to be an astronaut like the master chief. Hell Ya!

The part that stands out the most to me is the fact that the boy is “intently learning to read to play games with stories.” And come to think of it, this parent must be onto something with the attention span bit if their 4-year-old is already that invested in stories. Now to be fair, most young children really enjoy bed-time stories, and any responsible parent is probably teaching them to read during those sessions, even if the child is unconscious of it. But it can’t be overlooked that this child is seeking literacy out on his own so he can pursue something that’s of personal interest to him. Is it the interactive nature of video games that’s engaging enough to motivate this child? We don’t know for sure. But in my experience, if a person perceives something as play instead of work, motivation is much easier to come by.

Another striking quote from the article reads as follows:

We discussed the nature of bravery and cowardice while witnessing the interaction between Amaterasu and Susano in Okami.

We have discussed the nature of good, evil, power and greed while explaining how Anakin Skywalker is both a good guy and a bad guy in Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga.

I watched him discover that not all in the world is as it seems (and I emphasized the fact through conversation) after he discovered his first invisible block in Super Mario Bros.

The learning taking place in this situation is even more important in a child’s development than the ability to read. Critical thought is a necessary asset in this life and will eventually allow this child to debate his or her own personal morals and philosophies. But the fact is, the games being played are arbitrary here. Any media could be used as a vessel to spark conversation of such topics. In fact, the discussion about Anakin likely dealt more with the movies than the Lego Star Wars games. Instead, the learning here is a result of a responsible parent taking the opportunity to bestow wisdom to their child through characters that mean something to him or her.

Lastly, this parent has a unique perspective on the topic:

My youngest boy has been struggling with dyslexia his entire educational life. Playing games where (like the above father mentioned) there are complex menus and a requirement for understanding of context (as in Mass Effect’s conversation trees) has improved his reading ability significantly. Now, he isn’t the top of his class, but he no longer needs the “special help” he once did in order to get A’s and B’s in school.

I never really considered how a game’s menus and user interface could shape the way we see the world around us, but it makes sense that gamers might be more equipped to deal with complex micro-management in the real world. In the case of this boy with dyslexia, it would seem that video games provided him with both the motivation and the tools to cope with his handicap. I don’t fully understand how his interactions with complex menus helped him manage his condition, but it would seem to make sense that navigation and awareness of complicated systems would help one apply those skills to simpler systems, such as sentence structures.

What I’m getting out of this so far is that video games make for good motivational tools. And as we all know, motivation is half the battle when it comes to learning. But just as you probably wouldn’t want to learn finances from Monopoly, video games’ educational properties don’t seem to extend far enough to actually teach children a whole lot.

But perhaps that’s just a result of the content found in commercial video games. The Quest to Learn school in New York is banking on the inherent complexity and systematic interaction in game structures to motivate, engage, and educate 6th-12th grade students. “Games are exceptionally good at engaging kids,” Quest’s Katie Salen says. “They drop kids into complex problems where they fail and fail, but they try again and again.” The school just opened its doors in Fall 2009, so there’s no data to back the unorthodox learning environment up yet, but their educational model certainly sounds appealing:

Mission critical at Quest is a translation of the underlying form of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders. Games work as rule-based learning systems, creating worlds in which players actively participate, use strategic thinking to make choices, solve complex problems, seek content knowledge, receive constant feedback, and consider the point of view of others. As is the case with many of the games played by young people today, Quest is designed to enable students to “take on” the identities and behaviors of explorers, mathematicians, historians, writers, and evolutionary biologists as they work through a dynamic, challenge-based curriculum with content-rich questing to learn at its core.

It’s important to note that Quest is not a school whose curriculum is made up of the play of commercial videogames, but rather a school that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences. Games and other forms of digital media serve another useful purpose at Quest: they serve to model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century.

At Quest, the theme of “systems” is expressed in all aspects of the school’s design, from a standards-based integrated curriculum, to student support structures stressing the interconnectedness of academic, community, and youth development concerns. Academic standards provide the link between excellence and equity by setting consistently high, public expectations for every student, informed by an understanding of how students learn best. College and career opportunities are supported through an intern and apprenticeship model that allows students to engage in learning alongside experts starting in the 8th grade.

Personally, I don’t truly believe that particular approach to education is the most efficient way of teaching kids, but I do think it could be just the right environment for troubled or handicapped students who are incompatible with what they perceive to be the toxic environment of traditional education. Role-playing can do wonders to engage a person and get them interested for more than academic reasons. And it’s true that game-like systems diminish the negative associations of failure and encourage creative thinking within the system. I’m certainly interested to see how Quest’s test scores and graduate rates compare to standard schools in the future. With the right resources and a well-designed curriculum, a game-like approach to education could be very successful.

But most of us probably won’t be experiencing that sort of education anytime soon. So what can video games teach the average person? In my personal experience, games have actually enhanced my life in a few ways. Interestingly enough, I can’t really recall any learning experiences involving video games as a child, but my adolescent years harbored several positive gaming influences.

The first one that comes to mind is my first experience with Madden. Nobody in my family has ever really been into sports, and as such, I spent most of my childhood pitying the jocks and their shallow games. But for one reason or another I ended up buying a Madden game as a young teen, maybe in 2003. I went on to develop a severe Madden addiction that took a couple years to break, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that I learned the game of football from that video game. I learned all the minute rules and strategies of an incredibly complex game. And then I found the motivation to go out for the JV football team and found that I actually knew more about football than most of my teammates. I played football for two years and found it to be a very positive experience. For once, a video game actually got me off the couch.

Another positive experience I’ve had was back in the days of Halo 2. I suppose it actually goes back to co-oping Perfect Dark and other team experiences, but my educational experience really seemed to thrive with Halo. Through nightly sessions on Xbox Live and frequent LANs with a tight group of friends, I learned team-work and leadership skills that aided me in my football exploits, the academic environment, and life in general. I honestly don’t think there’s a better environment to learn team-work and discover the intangibles of leadership than in games, whether they be on a field or in a digital arena. The deep complexity and relentless pace of competitive environments force a person to think fast. You have to assess your situation; your resources, allies, obstacles, and goals. Then you have to act on that information while managing your teammates’ feelings and dealing with the consequences. I don’t think these intricate social skills are exclusive to the realm of video games, but they’re definitely a great place to learn them.

And then there’s broader things like my encyclopedic knowledge of WWII gained from so many WWII shooters and the problem solving skills earned through countless puzzles in games of all kinds. And had Guitar Hero come out a few years earlier, it likely would have helped introduced me to a wider world of music. I also feel like I could have gained a sense of values and morality from games with moral choices had I played them earlier in my life. And of course there’s the fact that video games have given me my identity in life and helped me learn about myself.

But having said all those things, I think we all know that video games don’t have an exceptional amount of educational value. No matter how much we want to defend our pastime, we can’t avoid the fact that the vast majority of popular games don’t require much activity up in the old noggin. Or at least they don’t teach things that can’t be learned elsewhere. What video games can do for those aspiring to learn is motivate them to dig deeper into topics through more traditional means. They also help us to learn about ourselves, just as all culture does. And there is an undeniable social aspect to many games that can teach us a lot. The unique structure of games is one that excels at engaging people but as it stands now, lacks the depth found in old-fashioned books. I find it hard to believe that video games could ever replace traditional learning despite the many flaws in the current U.S. educational system and an apparent rise in irresponsible parents. But it would probably be best for everyone if the Quest to Learn school proved me wrong. And who’s to say? If their learning model becomes a success, they could unintentionally change the face of commercial gaming forever.

Author: Cody

Tags: educational games, feature, halo, madden, morality in games, quest to learn school