Video Games & Education
Educators are increasingly recognizing the impact of entertainment software and utilizing games as a teaching device in a growing number of classrooms and business settings. In doing so, they are embracing the cultural and technological shifts of the 21st century and expanding the use of a favorite leisure activity, computer and video games, into a critical and still-emerging educational resource. More than just play, entertainment software is now being used to impart knowledge, develop life skills and reinforce positive habits in students of all ages.
Cognitive Research
In addition to being a great way to keep students engaged, researchers have found that video games have real potential as next-generation learning tools. Games use new technologies to incorporate principles crucial to human cognitive learning.
University of Wisconsin education professor Dr. James Paul Gee recently concluded that video games intermix instruction and demonstration, a more effective learning technique than the “memorize-and-regurgitate style” found in most classrooms.
Scottish teacher Derek Robertson, who founded Consolarium, the Scottish Centre for Games and Learning, released a survey that shows that brain-training games such as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Age have a positive impact on behavior and on learning when played during school. In June 2009, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop released a report titled Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children’s Learning and Health which concluded that computer and video games provide “an important, untapped opportunity” to support learning, particularly when children and adults play together. That same year, the center launched its Innovation in Children’s Digital Media prize program, providing incentives for university media labs as well as the entertainment software industry to develop research-based games that promote learning through digital media.
In an effort to maintain this unprecedented momentum, the Department of Education announced in January 2010 that it would provide initial funding for the nonprofit National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. The center will offer grants to academic institutions, nonprofit organizations or corporations who propose to research and develop new educational technologies, including simulations, computer and video games, virtual worlds and avatars that serve as tutors.
In the Classroom
Almost out of necessity, teachers are taking steps today to incorporate computer and video games into learning. From national organizations to individual classrooms, the education community is actively pursuing new methods for developing young minds.
The National Education Association (NEA) serves as a guiding force for instructors, cataloging information that prepares teachers for incorporating video games into the classroom.
Electronic Arts’ SimCity is among the NEA’s recommendations. The building game, which has shown to improve students’ problem-solving and analytical skills, plays an important role in many “gaming schools.” Aspiring engineering students, for example, participate in the annual National Engineers Week’s “Future City Competition,” in which middle school students around the country compete to design the best 2150 SimCity metropolis.
The GXB Learning Series is another video game line gaining popularity as an educational resource. Designed by teachers for both school and home use, the game offers content drawn straight from U.S. state and national education standards.
Additionally, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) worked with game developer Escape Hatch Entertainment to create Immune Attack, a game that teaches 7th through 12th graders about cellular biology and molecular science as they try to save a patient suffering from a bacterial infection. FAS also developed Discover Babylon in collaboration with UCLA's Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative and the Walters Art Museum. The game teaches 8 to 12 year olds the significance of Mesopotamia’s ancient city-states to world culture by using library and museum artifacts. In DimensionM, a role-playing video game created by Tabula Digita, students must answer rapid-fire math questions as they take part in 3-D adventures.
The White House has encouraged these trends through its unveiling of the Educate to Innovate campaign in November 2009. The campaign seeks to improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education for children by enlisting various private companies and nonprofit groups, including the ESA to spend money, time and volunteer effort to encourage students, particularly those in middle and high school, to pursue these subject areas. The ESA is working in cooperation with the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Microsoft Corporation, and the MacArthur Foundation to harness the excitement surrounding computer and video games through a series of STEM-related video game design competitions.
Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched its “Apps for Healthy Kids” competition in March 2010 as part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity. The competition calls on software developers, game designers and students to create innovative, engaging applications and games based on USDA’s health and wellness data sets that encourage children to eat healthier foods and be more physically active.
Schools across the country are incorporating interactive video games, such as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and Nintendo's Wii Fit into gym classes. “Exergames” such as these are attractive to young students and provide new resources for financially strapped physical education departments.
Professional Skills
The results that computer and video games have produced for teachers and students in the classroom have encouraged educational and training efforts outside the classroom. Businesses use games to train employees and games are becoming a key fixture in public education campaigns.
One entertainment software company, Games2Train, has developed employee training games for American Express, Bank of America, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Nokia and Pfizer. In addition, Canon uses a video game in which repairmen must drag and drop parts into the right spot on a copier to train technicians. IBM has also produced Innov8, a free, interactive game that teaches graduate students business and technology skills.
Video games and their technologies are also being used as a vehicle to reach and educate the public. In response to the recent financial crisis, the United States Treasury Department launched Bad Credit Hotel, an online game that teaches consumers the basics of good credit. The United Nations World Food Programme, meanwhile, created the Food Force video game to educate children about world hunger. Allstate Insurance is now offering a video game to its drivers to improve their driving skills.
Degree Programs
The educational benefits of video games are extending into higher education. Ludology, scholastic video game study from a humanistic perspective, now qualifies students to pursue careers in computer and video game design and programming.
300 American colleges, universities and technical schools, including New York University, the Art Institute of Seattle and Marist College, offer programs and courses in video game design and development. Carnegie Mellon University and the Georgia Institute of Technology offer master’s degrees in game development, while the University of Southern California offers a graduate degree in interactive media and an undergraduate degree in video game development.
Despite the movement’s infancy, the positive impact is tangible. The DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA., which grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in video game development, has helped transform the Seattle area into one of the nation's leading game-development regions. With a new research lab at the prestigious Parsons The New School for Design in New York on track to develop video games for training public officials, students and professionals, the impact is only just beginning.
Video games are also proving to be a lucrative career path for young graduates with starting salaries significantly higher than other industries. The video game industry’s average compensation per employee is more than $89,000.
Go Figure
- 46 million - The number of children between 5 and 17 years old who are currently gamers, according to The NPD Group.
- 8.07 - Increase in students’ math test score numbers after playing DimensionM over an 18-week period, compared to an increase of 3.74 points for the control group, according to a study conducted by the University of Central Florida.
- 100 to 135 - Number of Global Fortune 500 companies that will have adopted by 2012 gaming for learning purposes, according to The Apply Group
- 4 million - Number of people to play Food Force in the game’s first year, according to the United Nations World Food Programme
Copyright © 2010 — ESA Entertainment Software Association |
 |