Gaming as an Educational Tool

Katie Day
katie.appleton.day@gmail.com

Discussion paper
Charles Sturt University
October 2005



Abstract:  This paper explores how the growing phenomenon of video games has created a generational divide with major implications and opportunities for both the educational system and society.   Gaming inherently involves a set of learning principles -- aside from content -- which are empowering "digital natives" or gamers with new literacies, attitudes, and experiences.  Despite public concerns about violence, social isolation, and a bias towards males in gaming, the evidence does not support those fears.  Instead sophisticated -- or "serious" -- games are increasingly being utilized in education and the future points to increased investment in games for the good of society.



Introduction

Gaming is gradually being recognized as one of the most exciting future directions for education.  Gaming is also attracting a lot of attention in the media as it moves from being a minor activity to mass entertainment (for example, it was the cover story for The Economist on 6 August 2005 and it featured heavily in the international edition of Newsweek on September 26/October 3, 2005, a “special double issue” focusing on the future of entertainment).

The sales statistics for the new “leviathan” of online gaming – World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online game released in November 2004 that has generated more than four million subscribers worldwide, where previously sales of 500,000 would have been considered a major success (Schiesel 2005) – reveal an important cultural phenomenon, and, given the large number of young people involved, educators should take notice. 

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Games versus educational software

Games and educational software are usually considered at opposite ends of an entertainment/instruction spectrum, with the educational end continually trying to borrow some of the motivational aspects from games, resulting in automated drills and practice disguised as ‘play and learn’ in programs such as Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit, aimed mainly at younger students (Squire 2003).

The games end of the spectrum has developed over time into a wide array of overlapping genres, including action, adventure, FPS (first person shooter), fantasy, simulation, MMO (massive multiplayer online), RPG (role-playing games), MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing games), etc., available on a variety of platforms. 

Thanks to advances in technology such as broadband Internet access and vastly increased amounts of digital memory in computers, these commercial games are becoming more sophisticated and game players are becoming more interconnected (The Economist  2005).  It is the serious, complex games – defined as 'simulations with a goal structure in which the player has a distinct purpose and desired outcome' (Gee 2005b) – that are now being examined for what they teach students, particularly middle and secondary school students.

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What can be learned from games? 

Steven Johnson (2005, p. 40), in his book Everything bad is good for you:  how popular culture is making us smarter, claims it’s ‘not what you’re thinking about when you’re playing a game, it’s the way you’re thinking that matters’.

James Paul Gee (2003) makes the same argument in a more academic fashion in his book, What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.  He explores the theory of learning built into good video games by drawing on three areas of current research:  situated cognition (the notion that human learning is embedded in a material, social, and cultural reality); new literacies (including visual, media, computer, digital, and network); and connectionism (the idea that human intelligence is dependent upon pattern recognition) – and comes up with 36 learning principles, including:

He sees the playing of video games as a new literacy composed of a set of semiotic domains or genres, which provide players with new ways of experiencing and affiliating – assuming new identities – in order to gain learning (Gee 2003).  In contrast to what he calls the ‘content fetish’ in schools today which view academic disciplines as bodies of facts to be taught and tested, gaming teaches students to appreciate a discipline such as biology as a ‘ “game” that certain types of people “play” ‘ (Gee 2005a) and helps students practice how they can inhabit ‘authentic professional’ identities, by means of significant effort and experience, in new disciplines or semiotic domains (Gee 2005b)

Networked game simulations share with the constructivist learning approach the idea that 'knowledge is socially negotiated' (Savery & Duffy 1995, cited in DeKanter 2005).
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How are Digital Natives different?

Growing up with video games is now considered a generational, watershed experience, distinguishing those born before 1970 (roughly the time video games began) and those born after, though the labels used differ. The terms Boomers vs. Gamers have been used (Storey 2005), but Marc Prensky’s (2001a, 2001b, 2004) coinage – Digital Immigrants vs. Digital Natives – conveys the difference more explicitly.  The new modes of thinking associated with gaming and the digital, online revolution are literally changing the brains of young people as they form, creating faster, parallel-processing, random-access ‘hypertext minds’ – and the educational system must take this into account (Prensky 2001a, 2001b).

This generational divide also has implications for the business world as Digital Natives transfer to the workplace.  In their book, Got game:  How the gamer generation is reshaping business forever, Beck and Wade (2004) present their research (based on a survey of 2,500 people) as to how gamers are different – as employees and as leaders especially in their attitudes towards the value of experience, their own capabilities, decision-making, risk, and achievement.  For example, gamers believe there are many potential paths to winning, that failure through trial and error is to be expected, that they play an important role (the ‘hero’ role) in the process, and that peers are more to be counted on for assistance in learning than those in authority (Carstens & Beck 2005)

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Unavoidable issues 

So far the most positive aspects of video gaming have been outlined, though the public perception of gaming still tends to focus on three major negatives:  violence, social isolation, and gender.

Yet no causal connection between video game violence and youth violence has been established – instead as gaming numbers rise, juvenile violent crime is at a 30-year low in the U.S. (Jenkins 2004).  What research has been done is either inconclusive or unsatisfactory (The Economist  2005).

Social isolation is also an exaggerated fear.  In fact, playing video games is often a social event – whether gamers play with others physically in the room or virtually online (Jenkins 2004).  The affinity groups that grow up around games also provide a social context for gamers (Gee 2003).
 
Gender imbalance in the world of video games is a multi-faceted – and changing – issue (Agosto 2004; Krotoski 2004).  Female gamers increased dramatically when The Sims, a social simulation game, came out in the 1990s – and game makers are now rushing to provide new games focusing on social/strategic relationships for the half of the market that has been ignored for so long (Dickey & Summers 2005).  The under-representation of female characters in video games as well as stereotypical portrayals may be corrected in the process.
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Serious games in the classroom 

In the UK Tim Rylands won the 2005 Becta award for best use of technology in the classroom by playing the best-selling multimedia fantasy game Myst with his primary school students using an interactive whiteboard and projector, then getting them to write creatively about what they experience – causing their tested literacy levels to skyrocket (Twist 2005). 
 
A commercial game more obviously suited to use in classrooms is Civilization, an empire-building strategy game originally created in 1990.  How playing the game mediates students’ understanding of social studies has already been the subject of a PhD (Squire 2005; Shreve 2005).  An extensive fan site called Apolyton also provides ‘mods’ (or user customizations) for the game; this kind of extension capability, available for many commercial games, expands both the life and the scope of games and is an area of potential innovation for teachers (Downes 2005). 
 
Making History is another history-based multiplayer simulation game -- this one created with students in mind -- which allows players to explore ‘what if’ situations by taking on the roles of European leaders before, during, and after WWII (Larson 2004).  The game is designed as a platform that teachers can customize to match their teaching styles and objectives (DeKanter 2005).
 
Interest in developing “serious” games for education is growing.  For example, the 2nd annual conference of the Serious Games Initiative to be held Oct. 31/Nov. 1, 2005, will be dedicated to “Social Change through Digital Games” (Serious Games Initiative 2005).  The UN World Food Programme has also just produced a game called Food Force to help children understand world hunger (Peake 2005).
 
Even university students are being encouraged to contribute to the cause; a contest called Hidden Agenda, challenging university students to design a ‘genius game for a middle school crowd’ using ‘stealth education’, resulted in a winning entry called Refuse of Space which teaches physics and aeronautics via players steering a pirate ship through space (Hidden Agenda 2005).  Not surprisingly, an increasing number of universities are establishing interdisciplinary degree courses in games design and development (Brenna 2005; Rajagolpalan & Schwartz 2005). 
 
Teachers can learn via games as well.  A classroom simulator for teachers called simSchool, which will allow players to practice their teaching skills on virtual students and get feedback on how the strategies they select affects students’ learning, is currently in development (Zibit & Gibson 2005).
 
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Serious games in the library 

What if information literacy could be taught by means of a game designed specifically for that purpose?  Such an idea, including design and technical requirements, was explored in a workshop at the SLANZA 2005 conference (Robertson, Bagnato & Buys 2005).

How can school librarians connect with and support gamers?  Suggestions include carrying serious games and game-related materials in the library and/or making them available via the library webpages, librarians becoming adept at games themselves thereby modelling the identity, setting up workstations for games and organizing game nights, and trying to link students with books on topics related to the games they're playing (Storey 2005; Squire & Steinkuehler 2005).  Agosto (2004) also has extensive advice about how to help girls get into gaming through the library.

The advantages of school libraries adapting themselves to the gaming generation are enormous.  Above all, librarians should focus on positioning themselves as strategy guides, rather than gatekeepers in this new world (Storey 2005; Squire & Steinkuehler 2005).
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The future? 

A strong characteristic of Digital Natives is the desire to create (Prensky 2004) If playing games can be considered the ability to “read” video games, then the ability to create video games can be considered the other half – the “write” aspect (Klopfer & Yoon 2005).  In  the future, students will need to be producers of games, as well as consumers. 

The new literacies of gamers will increasingly present a challenge to the cultures of our schools.  The question is how quickly we can re-organize around the learning principles inherent in games.  As Squire (2005) says,

In order to realize the potential of such gaming technologies in education,
it will indeed be necessary for us to "change the game"
in more fundamental ways with regard to our current institutions of learning.

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References

Agosto, DE  2004, 'Girls and gaming: a summary of the research with implications for practice', Teacher Librarian , February 2004, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 8-14, viewed 23 August 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.

Beck, JC & Wade, M  2004, Got game: how the gamer generation is reshaping business forever , Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Brenna, S 2005, 'Much fun, for credit', The New York Times, 24 April 2005, viewed 23 August 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.

Carstens, A, & Beck J  2005, 'Get ready for the gamer generation', TechTrends,, May/June 2005, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 22-26, viewed 30 September 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.

DeKanter, N  2005, ‘Gaming redefines interactivity for learning’, TechTrends, May/Jun 2005, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 26-32, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Dickey, C & Summers, N  2005, ‘A female sensibility’, Newsweek (international edition), September 26/October 3, 2005, pp. 65-67.
 
Downes, S  2005, ‘Places to go: Apolyton’, Innovate, vol. 1, no. 6, viewed 7 September 2005, http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=198
 
The Economist 2005, ‘Special report: Video gaming: Chasing the dream’, 6 August 2005, pp. 53-55.
 
Gee, JP  2003, What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy , Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA, and Basingstoke, UK.
 
Gee, JP  2005a, ‘Good video games and good learning’, Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2005, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 33-37, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Gee, JP  2005b, ‘What would a state of the art instructional video game look like?’, Innovate, vol. 1, no. 6, viewed 7 September 2005, http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=80
 
Hidden Agenda  2005, home page, last updated 7 August 2005, Leimandt Foundation, viewed 30 September 2005, http://www.hiddenagenda.com
 
Jenkins, H  2004, ‘Reality bytes:  Eight myths about video games debunked’, viewed online 5 September 2005, http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

Johnson, S  2005, Everything bad is good for you:  how popular culture is making us smarter, Allen Lane, London.

Klopfer, E, & Yoon, S  2005, 'Developing games and simulations for today and tomorrow's tech savvy youth', TechTrends, May/June 2005, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 33-42, viewed 15 September 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Krotoski, A  2004, ‘Chicks and joysticks: an exploration of women and gaming’, White Paper, September 2004, ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), UK, viewed online 1 October 2005, http://www.elspa.co.uk/about/pr/elspawhitepaper3.pdf

Larson, C  2004, 'To study history, pupils can rewrite it', The New York Times,, 27 May 2004, viewed 23 August 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Peake, S  2005, ‘Virtual hunger’, The World Today, Aug/Sep 2005, vol. 61, no. 8/9, viewed 23 August 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Prensky, M  2001a, 'Digital natives, digital immigrants', On the Horizon, October 2001, vol. 9, no. 5, viewed 7 May 2005,
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf  
 
Prensky, M  2001b, Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II : do they really think differently?, viewed 10 June 2005, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf  
 
Prensky, M  2004, The emerging online life of the digital native: what they do differently because of technology and how they do it, viewed 10 June 2005, http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-he_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf  

Rajagoplalan, M, & Schwartz, DI  2005, 'Game design and game-development education', Phi Kapp Phi Forum, Summer 2005, vol. 85, no. 2, pp. 29-32, viewed 23 August 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Robertson, L, Bagnato, P, & Buys, E  2005, ‘Delivering information literacy skills through game-based learning’, Paper presented at the SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) Conference 2005, viewed online 7 September 2005, http://www.slanza.org.nz/Conference%202005/Lois_Robertson.pdf
 
Schiesel, S  2005, ‘Conqueror in a war of virtual worlds’, New York Times, 6 September 2005, viewed 7 September 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Serious Games Initiative 2005, last modified 16 September 2005, home page, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, USA, viewed 5 October 2005, http://www.seriousgames.org/
 
Shreve, J  2005, ‘Let the games begin’, Edutopia, April 2005, viewed 1 May 2005, http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1268&issue=apr_05#
 
Squire, K  2003, ‘Video games in education’, The Education Arcade, viewed 7 September 2005, http://www.educationarcade.org/gtt/pubs/IJIS.doc
 
Squire, K  2005, ‘Changing the game: what happens when video games enter the classroom?’, Innovate, vol. 1, no. 6, viewed 7 September 2005, http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=82
 
Squire, K & Steinkuehler, C  2005, 'Meet the gamers', Library Journal, 15 April 2005, viewed 21 April 2005, retrieved via ProQuest database.
 
Storey, T  2005, 'The big bang', OCLC Newsletter, January/February/March 2005, viewed 7 May 2005, http://www.oclc.org/news/publications/newsletters/oclc/2005/267/thebigbang.htm
 
Twist, J 2005, ‘Pupils learn through Myst game’, BBC News, 25 August 2005, viewed online 7 September 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4160466.stm   
 
Zibit, M & Gibson, D  2005, ‘simSchool: the game of teaching’, Innovate, vol. 1, no. 6, viewed 7 September 2005, http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=173
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Further gaming-related websites

Social Impact Games
http://www.socialimpactgames.com/

Games Parents Teachers
http://www.GamesParentsTeachers.com

www: Tools for Education
http://m.fasfind.com/wwwtools/m/2530.cfm?x=0&rid=2530

The Education Arcade
http://www.educationarcade.org/

WomenGamers.Com
http://womengamers.com/  

Joystick101.org: Getting in-depth with games
http://www.joystick101.org/
 
GameZone
http://www.gamezone.com/ 

GameTalk
http://www.gametalk.com/
 
PCGamer
http://pcgamer.com/
 
GamePro
http://gamepro.com/
 
GameSpot
http://www.gamespot.com/
 
IGN.COM
http://www.ign.com/
 
MFO: Power tools for gamers
http://www.mrfixitonline.com/readPosting.asp?PostingId=682484
 
GameCritics.Com: Smart reviews for serious gamers
http://gamecritics.com/
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