Video Games: Lessons For Learning
For the past week, I’ve been home enjoying Spring Break with my two elementary-age children. Free from the specter of homework, we indulged ourselves with movies, fast food, backyard sports, and a healthy dose of video games. Although my fingers have slowed down a bit with age, I can still hold my own in Madden NFL and am the in-house king of Monkey Ball. While I will try almost anything short of Dance Dance Revolution, I am most drawn to games that promote critical thinking and problem solving, and those aren’t necessarily “edutainment” or historical strategy titles. Case in point: my son’s recent encounter with SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Tactical Strike.
At first glance, a video game based on rescuing hostages may not seem like a vehicle for higher-order thinking. While I believe the premise of the game addresses that issue, the real value of the gaming experience for my son came when he couldn’t figure out how to complete a particularly challenging level. After spending more than an hour trying to solve the problem independently, he finally asked for assistance, and in doing so gave me a window into how motivation, experimentation, and the right resources can support learning.
Image Source: http://socom.us.playstation.com/page/screenshots.aspx
Motivated to Win, Motivated to Learn
Alfie Kohn, Robert Marzano, and a host of other researches have written volumes on the topic of student motivation. Regardless of which theorist you subscribe to, the simple fact is that video game designers are the true masters of motivation. Games don’t sell unless they are popular, and kids won’t play games that don’t motivate them. If my son hadn’t truly been engaged by his game, he would not have been as willing to seek out a solution. In short, because he was motivated to win, he was motivated to learn how to solve the problem.
While we would all like to believe that students are intrinsically motivated and our learning experiences are designed to illicit their best thinking, such is not always the case. The promise of an “A” on an exercise means very little to some students, and problems/questions that appeal to us may only be marginally interesting or relevant in their minds. The mantra of “this is important so you need to learn it” is insufficient; we need them to want to figure out how to get to the next “level”.
Experiment with the Buttons
When my son showed me the game, he explained that he had found where the hostages were being held and eliminated all “enemy resistance”. However, despite trying “every” possible combination of controller buttons and searching the room thoroughly, he couldn’t get them to move (i.e. escape) out of the room. Despite not being successful, he at least had the opportunity to apply his prior knowledge, experiment, and receive immediate feedback. He didn’t discover how to free the captives, but he did learn what didn’t work.
Game designers understand the value of experimentation and recognize that kids can manipulate variables. SOCOM uses 10 different buttons, which, when used in combination, can perform more than 30 different functions (by comparison, a linear equation has three variables that can be solved using four buttons on a calculator). Unfortunately, experimentation is frequently a minimal or completely missing component of the problem-solving process. Trial and error can facilitate learning if we create opportunities that allow for it and then give our students the time and freedom to explore…and to fail.
If You Don’t Know, Ask
Reading is not something my son particularly enjoys, so when he told me he had read through the instruction booklet and still couldn’t find the answer I was pleasantly surprised at his diligence. When he proceeded to open a web browser and started searching Ask for more information, I knew he was committed to his quest. With my help, we identified key-words for his search and skimmed through the results in hopes of finding the secret. Unfortunately, we came up empty, but he hasn’t given up. Tomorrow, when he returns to school, he is going to find out if any of his friends have the same game and ask for their help.
Under different circumstances, teaching search strategies to a nine year old might be a tenuous proposition at best. The difference in this case was that aside from being motivated, he had enough background knowledge to frame his query, perform a targeted search, and evaluate the results. When conducting research, students are frequently asked to find information on a subject that either requires no thinking whatsoever or a depth of understanding they do not yet posses. The gap between Googling and synthesizing information is enormous and we need to be mindful not to let students fall into the chasm or it’s the educational equivalent of “Game Over”.
You Don’t Have to Compete With Games
In case this question was forming in your mind, the answer is no. Educators should, however, approach motivation, experimentation, and resources thoughtfully. My anecdotal example of SOCOM may not convince anyone of the merits of video games, but I would challenge you to find anything from my son’s curriculum this year that would inspire him to spend half a vacation day developing his critical thinking and problem skills.
BTW…if you happen to know how to rescue the hostages, feel free to pass that information along; I know he’d appreciate it!
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Great article. Your path to this understanding was not unlike my own… Back in 2005 I started playing games. At almost 40 I was lost. In January of that same year I came up with the following concept and I am now in the final stages of creating gamercoach.com. a place where 40+ gamers get video game lessons with younger gamers – kind of a reverse mentorship program.
It is also a great way for digitally smart young gamer/adults to be able to have their own business online doing what they love – gaming.
GamerCoach.com will market the site to 35+ adults, handle the billing, scheduling and customer support – the coaches with establish their own hourly rates and we will take 10-15%.
Why am I writing you? Because you helped inspire this and I’d like to set up an interview for a follow-up piece.
Consider these recent stats as a way to peek your interest…and make a strong case for a site that caters to older gamers and families…and a follow-up piece on us!
“At this year’s E3 Media And Business Summit in Los Angeles… the presentations made by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft were devoted to demonstrations of party games, music-based titles, and online experiences designed with whole families in mind.
Gone were the teen-aged and hip twenty-somethings to demonstrate the latest titles, and in their place were middle-aged models, dressed as parents, to take the stage and play in front of the assembled crowds.”
· According to a recent Ipsos Reid report, the average age of adults playing video games in Canada is now 40.3 years-old.
· That’s up from the results of past years where the average has been 32 and 34.
· Another study, performed by PriceWaterHouseCoopers finds that families around the world are now spending $48 billion each year on video games, more than they do on DVDs or music.
· Microsoft
The image that best sums up this change was to be found at Microsoft’s E3 presentation where three middle-aged models walked out on stage to play a new family-oriented game called “You’re In The Movies”. Dressed in slacks and corporate casual shirts, the three gyrated and twitched in a laughably un-cool, parentally un-hip display that would seem inconceivable for an Xbox 360 event, but was positioned by Microsoft with all the emphasis and importance that they normally reserve for one of their Halo games.
· 57% of parents are playing games alongside their kids
· Pew Study: “… There is a significant number of parents* who report spending at least an hour a week playing video games with their children.”
· The Entertainment Software Association pegs the average age for gamers at 33. According to our August 2006 survey, 35% of adults report playing video games online, and that number becomes even greater when one includes adults who play console games.
· Some surprising statistics from a new AOL/Associated Press poll shows 40% of American adults play games on a computer or a console.
· Ready made coaches? “76% of youth report helping others while gaming.”
October 27th, 2008 at 9:03 am
People should read this.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Nice blog, I was performing some web browsing and happened upon your blog, I was wondering if you knew your website is displaying strangely in the K-mellon browser. I will see everything however the pictures are somehow out of wallop. Probably not a massive deal since hardly no one uses it anymore but I am old school and still use it.