Video Games in Education Boon or Bane Nor

Video Games in Education – Boon or Bane? Nor Hidayah M. Amin College of Education Lehigh University

Contents Introduction: § Development of educational media § Video Games in American Culture Educational settings: § § § Using video games to understand engagement Pac-Man vs. traditional schooling Games: Drill & practice Simulations & strategy games Aggression & social mal-adjustment Future of video games in education

Introduction Educational potentials of gaming: Most research done focused on the social consequences of gaming. Educators have ignored cognitive potential of games especially in: ▪ Interactive stories ▪ Digital authoring tools ▪ Collaborative worlds

VG in US culture Video games are a powerful force in the entertainment & economic sector. Price Waterhouse Cooper: US sales of entertainment software reached $8. 2 billion in 2004. Sales in 2009 are expected to reach $15 billion. Video games have pervasively influence the American culture. Most of the studies conducted about video games in education are done in the Nintendo age - limited & outdated.

Engagemen t Malone (1981) generated 3 main elements that make video games fun: Challenge, Fantasy, Curiosity Educational programs should have: 1. Clear goals that students find meaning 2. Multiple goals structures & scoring to give feedback 3. Multiple difficulty levels 4. Random element of surprise 5. Emotionally appealing fantasy & metaphor

Engagemen t Bowman (1982) uses Csikzentmihalyi’s discussion of “flow”: Pac-Man is an action system where skills & challenges are progressively balanced, goals are clear, feedback is unambiguous, and relevant stimuli can be differentiated from irrelevant stimuli.

Csikzentmihalyi (1990) describes “flow” as: - a State of Optimal experience, - whereby a person is so Engaged in activity - - that Self-consciousness disappears, - Time becomes distorted - and people engage in complex, goal-directed Activity - not for external rewards - but simply for the Exhilaration of doing. S. O. E. S. T. A. E.

PM vs. T Schooling Pac-Man Traditional Schooling Player controls how much he plays Students learn at 1 pace, little freedom to control content of learning Players engaged in quick and varied activity Students passively absorb info in routine activity Players can take all the time they need to master the game TS holds time constant, allowing achievement to vary Players have feeling of mastering environment – become more skilful Students learn knowledge abstracted by teacher and regurgitate

PM vs. T Schooling Pac-Man Traditional Schooling Players work together, sharing tips and secrets Students perform in isolation, and cannot use one another as resources Performance is criterion based, each player competes against his ability to master the game Students are graded normatively, graded against each other Games are played for intrinsic reward for playing them Schools are structured around extrinsic rewards such as good grades or fear of failure

Boon Commercial games – military, pilots Edutainment products

Drills & Practice Popular because they can easily be integrated into a didactic curriculum as “enrichment” exercises during independent study time. Video games – support student’s exploration of microworlds or as a construction tool (Papert, 1981).

Simulations Hi-fidelity: to model every interaction in a system in as life-like manner as possible. E. g. ? Low-fidelity: simplify a system to highlight key components of the system. E. g. ?

Tools for Learning 1. Manipulate otherwise unalterable variables – Sim. Earth 2. Enable students to view phenomena from new perspectives - Hidden Agenda 3. Observe systems behavior over time - Civilization 4. Pose hypothetical questions to a system - Antietam 5. Visualize a system in 3 dimensions - Digital Weather Station 6. Compare simulations with their understanding of a system - Sim. City

Bane Provenzo (1991): 1. Violent, aggressive behavior 2. Destructive gender stereotyping 3. Unhealthy “rugged individualistic” attitudes 4. Stifle creative play

Research findings Violent, aggressive behavior Research thus far has been inconclusive. Calvert & Tan (1994) – video games cause some increase of violent thoughts. Lin & Lipper (1987) – no correlations between regular video play and violence. In summary, research on video games has failed to show that video games cause violent, anti-social or aggressive behavior or poor school performance.

Destructive gender stereotyping Research findings Few women protagonists have been featured in video games; most women characters in fighting games resemble adolescent male fantasies. Female gamers = 20% of video games players. Barbie: Fashion Designer sold 500, 000 copies. Thus, video games creator must focus on character development & collaboration in order to attract girls.

Research findings Unhealthy “rugged individualistic” attitudes Image of “lone ranger” is prevalent in video games. Games like Asteroids & Doom capitalize on making the player isolated, taking the world alone. MUDs (Multiple User Dungeons) & MOOs (a MUD object oriented) are text-based online virtual reality system where players can collaborate in groups to slay villains etc. Other examples: Avatar, Everquest

Stifle creative play Research findings Children are not passive consumers of video games. They ‘reappropriate’ it into their own play: 1. They talk about a game on the bus. 2. They act out scenes from a game in the playground. 3. They discuss games on bulletin board. Ellis (1983) – video games like popular media become the building blocks of children’s world.

Future Since 1980 s, gaming technology has improved tremendously. But there is much room for the study of how designs can be incorporated into student centered learning environment. Many educators have been using edutainment products. We need more empirical research into how these environments work. Interactive fiction and online games are 2 areas that have not been studied at all – instructional technologists can research on how online environments support community development.

Reference s Bowman, R. F. (1982). A Pac-Man theory of motivation. Tactical implications for classroom instructions. Educational Technology, 22(9), 14 -17. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optical Experience. New York: Harper Perennial. Calvert, S. L. , & Tan, S. (1994). Impact of virtual reality on young adults’ physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts: Interaction versus observation. Special Issue: Effects of interactive entertainment technologies on development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 125 -139. Ellis, G. J. (1983). Youth in the Electronic Environment: An Introduction. Youth and Society, 15(1): 3 -12.

Reference s Lin, S. & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Correlates of children's usage of video games and computers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17. 72 -93. Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive Science, (4), 333 -369. Papert, S. (1981). Mindstorm: Children, computers and powerful ideas. Brighton: Harvester Press. Provenzo, E. F. (1991). Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

Q&A

hidayah. amin@lehigh. edu