(Response to a news article)
NY1 news article "Public School Students Enjoy Thrill Of Math-Based Video Games" described that a gaming competition at Columbia University engaged hundreds students from public schools on 13th march in 2010. "Now these students from 80 cities schools can truthfully say they are doing their homework as they play video games." DimensionM is a role- playing video game which requires quick math skills to keep going. Kids compete with each other in this three-dimensional and multi-player game and teachers can tailor the math to what each students needs to work on. “It helped my math get 10 times better,” one of the students said.
This is an good example to show that students could improve their mathematical performance by playing video games. Randel et al. (1992) state that the beneficial effects of gaming are more likely to be found, when specific content such as mathematics, physics and language arts is targeted. Furthermore, students are more interested in game activities than conventional classroom instruction. This example also shows that it could be solved by integrating video games into teaching. Students always feel boring about learning mathematics, but video games may change the way they learn it and make the learning to be fun. Besides, this news shows that video games might have been gradually integrated into current education systems in the United States of America, and these video games could be used either for teaching at school or homework at home.
Education could be more fun because kids are growing up in a word with many new media forms such as instant messenger, video games, social networking and so on. Therefore, it is clear that traditional way of teaching could be improved by introducing more well-designed educational games in this new digital era. More educational games could be designed and used in teaching other subjects for example history, literature, and so on.
Reference:
Randel, M.,Morris, B. A., Wetzel,C.D.& Whitehill, B.V. (1992). The effectiveness of games for educational purposes: A review of recent research. Simulation Gaming vol. 23 (3). 261-276.
Hi Nan. I agree this is an interesting and relevant news article. However, it is quite dated as 'news' (2010). Also, be careful not to over-claim something as 'evidence', e.g. because one child is quoted as saying that they learned maths this way can not be generalised as 'sound evidence to show that students can improve their academic performance by playing games'.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, within media education, more generally than 'maths' education, Andrew Burn from the UK has done a lot of work about children making games as well as using them. You can see his work in:
Burn, A (2009) Making New Media: creative production and digital literacies, New Yok: Peter Lang
Burn, A and Durran, J (2007) Media Literacy in Schools: practice, production and progression, London: Paul Chapman
Burn, A & Durrant, C (eds) (2008) Media Teaching: Language, Audience, Production, Norwood, SA: AATE, NATE & Wakefield Press†
Buckingham, D, Carr, D, Burn, A, Schott, G (2006) Video-games: Text, Narrative, Play, Cambridge: Polity
I agree with your comment referring to students’ preference of game activities over conventional classroom instruction. From personal teaching experience, it can be difficult to engage students with a worksheet; however, the same students are easily motivated if they learn the same content from the worksheet through a computer game.
ReplyDeleteAs video games creep their way into classrooms and libraries, they need to be evaluated for their educational purpose and design (Williamson & Futurelab, 2009). You comment that games should be well designed. I agree with you here. I have seen many computer games that students play in class that are simple wrote games that require students to answer the question correctly to get to the next level or complete the game. If games are to be well designed to meet students’ learning needs and even extend their learning, who is going to be responsible in creating these games? If specially trained gamers design and create suitable educational games, should teaching staff, even students have a say on the content? Recently, students in Victorian schools had the opportunity to showcase their video games to well-known Victorian game developers Big Ant, Firemint and The Voxtel Agents (Teh, 2011). I can see this as being a great step forward in creating well-designed, educational games. After all, it is the students who should have their say in what they want to learn.
(Jacqui Long)
references:
Williamson, B. & Futurelab. (2009). Computer games, schools, and young people: A report for educators on using computer games for learning. Retrieved September 19, 2011 from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_75617_1%26url%3D
Teh, B. (2011, August 30). Developing education: Is there room for video games in classrooms? [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.techvibes.com/blog/developing-education-is-there-room-for-video-games-in-classrooms-2011-08-30