Games seems to be an overlooked, or at the very least, a seriously underused educational tool. The very essence of a game, is learning the rules and then progressing by them, which sounds a lot like a school curriculum. However, it is probably due to only fairly recent video games managing to capture a satisfactory amount of the complex human learning process that games can be a serious supplement and even format for a class curriculum. There's only so much you can do with Jeopardy.
Video games are, above all, interactive. They change and react in real time or with each player/learner action. This, again, sounds quite a bit like our real world or curriculum. In the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning, the author states that, "even simple game elements draw students into course content. More complex game mechanics can pique motivation through the acquisition of points, the urge to race against peers, or the personal satisfaction of learning things that they can apply outside the activity." Isn't that what teaching does? An interesting teacher draws students in and motivates them through points and activities. At least, that's how I remember many of my favorite teachers. The basic class rule of "participation" as part of a grade is an underlying reward system: participate in class, get points. It's an old model and video games have taken it to a much more attractive level by offering real-time rewards in return for real-time participation within the game world.
In class: voluntarily answer a question or make a good point, the teacher can nod, smile, even congratulate, then make a quick mark that today you participated, though you don't really get anything tangible and your progress is mainly implied. That can be fair enough for some things, but the monotony of it can get stale.
In game: voluntarily explore a new area, the game may reward you with either a big or small prize or... you may find nothing and get nothing! But you know that in optional areas there often are things, so you just go on to look for the next one, hoping your luck will be better! The reward for one bit of effort is immediate and of nothing occurs, there's the tantalizing prospect of one can be strong! Self-motivation is generated.
This last bit is something high quality video games excel at and Tom Chatfield elaborates this point in detail in his presentation on TedTalk, 7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain: "We also say there's going to be loads of other items of varying qualities and levels of excitement. There's going to be a 10 percent chance you get a pretty good item. There's going to be a 0.1 percent chance you get an absolutely awesome item" and if you do get one "they make very sure another one doesn't appear for a certain length of time to keep the value, to keep it special." I remember this in the card playing game, Magic: The Gathering, which I used to play. There was always a chance to get a really good new card in a 15 card pack, but the trick was, really good cards often required others to support them, thus there was a revolving door of incentive to get more cards and, needless to say, the game was a major seller. However, buying cards in random with some kids getting lucky and getting a lot of high end cards. Videos games, as Chatfield states, can get around this unfairness by not giving a player two great items within too short of a time span. This encourages more playing and playing can mean learning if it keeps students engaged in classwork that's given a game dynamic and structure. Chatfield further states that rewards themselves, be they money or game perks, are really secondary, and "the biggest neurological turn-on for people is other people. This is what really excites us. In reward terms, it's not money; it's not being given cash -- that's nice -- it's doing stuff with our peers, watching us, collaborating with us." Humans are a social species, so this makes sense. Thousands of years ago, people formed villages and communities out of the desire to collaborate, now we play games for the same reason!
In the article, Sculpting Flow and Fiero, which is from the realm of Magic: The Gathering, the author quotes psychologist and creativity researcher, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who states that, "the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning" is a way to describe "flow" or the point where the difficulty of a game is just enough for a player to overcome it with his or her current abilities. The flow experience needs "clear goals, rigidly defined rules of engagement, and the potential for
measured improvement in the context of those goals and rules" the similarity of which seems to be readily applied to an educational context.
The critical element is that in this context students are much more engaged in their learning than in the traditional classroom. In this new classroom, the teacher provides possibilities and evaluates the students based on their choices, as does a video game.
This technique is still in its nascent stages, especially when compared to traditional education, however, it's growing just as the video games it seeks to emulate did. I played Magic: The Gathering in elementary school and already by high school, when I wasn't playing anymore, I could hope to keep up with the newly developed complexities. The difference between the arcade classic Space Invaders and the much newer World of Warcraft is analogous. People have been captivated by games primarily because games have a learning curve and offer "the flow." This has affected education with parents complaining why kids are so captivated by games that offer nothing for their future and the fact remains some games are pure entertainments, or casual, however serious game also exist and the field of education should do all it can incorporate them and their ideas.
Video games are, above all, interactive. They change and react in real time or with each player/learner action. This, again, sounds quite a bit like our real world or curriculum. In the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning, the author states that, "even simple game elements draw students into course content. More complex game mechanics can pique motivation through the acquisition of points, the urge to race against peers, or the personal satisfaction of learning things that they can apply outside the activity." Isn't that what teaching does? An interesting teacher draws students in and motivates them through points and activities. At least, that's how I remember many of my favorite teachers. The basic class rule of "participation" as part of a grade is an underlying reward system: participate in class, get points. It's an old model and video games have taken it to a much more attractive level by offering real-time rewards in return for real-time participation within the game world.
In class: voluntarily answer a question or make a good point, the teacher can nod, smile, even congratulate, then make a quick mark that today you participated, though you don't really get anything tangible and your progress is mainly implied. That can be fair enough for some things, but the monotony of it can get stale.
In game: voluntarily explore a new area, the game may reward you with either a big or small prize or... you may find nothing and get nothing! But you know that in optional areas there often are things, so you just go on to look for the next one, hoping your luck will be better! The reward for one bit of effort is immediate and of nothing occurs, there's the tantalizing prospect of one can be strong! Self-motivation is generated.
This last bit is something high quality video games excel at and Tom Chatfield elaborates this point in detail in his presentation on TedTalk, 7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain: "We also say there's going to be loads of other items of varying qualities and levels of excitement. There's going to be a 10 percent chance you get a pretty good item. There's going to be a 0.1 percent chance you get an absolutely awesome item" and if you do get one "they make very sure another one doesn't appear for a certain length of time to keep the value, to keep it special." I remember this in the card playing game, Magic: The Gathering, which I used to play. There was always a chance to get a really good new card in a 15 card pack, but the trick was, really good cards often required others to support them, thus there was a revolving door of incentive to get more cards and, needless to say, the game was a major seller. However, buying cards in random with some kids getting lucky and getting a lot of high end cards. Videos games, as Chatfield states, can get around this unfairness by not giving a player two great items within too short of a time span. This encourages more playing and playing can mean learning if it keeps students engaged in classwork that's given a game dynamic and structure. Chatfield further states that rewards themselves, be they money or game perks, are really secondary, and "the biggest neurological turn-on for people is other people. This is what really excites us. In reward terms, it's not money; it's not being given cash -- that's nice -- it's doing stuff with our peers, watching us, collaborating with us." Humans are a social species, so this makes sense. Thousands of years ago, people formed villages and communities out of the desire to collaborate, now we play games for the same reason!
In the article, Sculpting Flow and Fiero, which is from the realm of Magic: The Gathering, the author quotes psychologist and creativity researcher, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who states that, "the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning" is a way to describe "flow" or the point where the difficulty of a game is just enough for a player to overcome it with his or her current abilities. The flow experience needs "clear goals, rigidly defined rules of engagement, and the potential for
measured improvement in the context of those goals and rules" the similarity of which seems to be readily applied to an educational context.The critical element is that in this context students are much more engaged in their learning than in the traditional classroom. In this new classroom, the teacher provides possibilities and evaluates the students based on their choices, as does a video game.
This technique is still in its nascent stages, especially when compared to traditional education, however, it's growing just as the video games it seeks to emulate did. I played Magic: The Gathering in elementary school and already by high school, when I wasn't playing anymore, I could hope to keep up with the newly developed complexities. The difference between the arcade classic Space Invaders and the much newer World of Warcraft is analogous. People have been captivated by games primarily because games have a learning curve and offer "the flow." This has affected education with parents complaining why kids are so captivated by games that offer nothing for their future and the fact remains some games are pure entertainments, or casual, however serious game also exist and the field of education should do all it can incorporate them and their ideas.
As someone who has played games in the past, you are in a good position to truly understand the how aspects of the game-playing experience can be useful and motivating for language learners.
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