Running Head: Gaming Education

Video Games and Education A.J. Diaz 3/23/11 Alexander.diaz@qmail.queens.edu

Running Head: Gaming Education

President Barack Obama once said, All of us have a role to play in building an education system that is worthy of our children and ready to help us seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the 21st century(2010). Currently, the United States education is inadequate and needs alternative and better teaching methods to educate the people in the K-12 school system. Recent studies have shown that video games are more advanced and complex in how they teach students compared to the conventional methods such as lecturing and class discussions. In addition, video games have proven to be effective on multiple levels of education, starting from elementary school and going through workplace education. The United States needs to evolve its current education standard; it scores low in math, science, and reading compared to other first world countries(usatoday.com). The K-12 education system that is currently in place in the United States has to be altered by implementing educational based games into the curriculum to be more effective. Educational video games are the perfect solution to help solve the education crisis in America because they motivate students to do schoolwork, games teach students skills beyond the subject content, and games are a practical solution to help better our education system. Motivating the Youth One of biggest difficulties teachers in our school system have to face is lack of motivation from the students. Motivation to do school work is vital to any students success in school and for the rest of their lives. Neofotistos argues, Maintaining a

Running Head: Gaming Education

stable learning environment, which keeps students motivated, is essential in establishing well-rounded and educated students(1995). Students lack motivation for multiple reasons such as not believing that their efforts will improve their performance and not perceiving the classroom climate as supportive(cmu.edu). A good solution to solving these problems is through implementing educational games in our education. Students who do not believe that their efforts improve their performance do not see the value of practicing and training themselves to become better learners. A solution to lack of practice is to show them their progress in forms of levels and achievements. In the video game Halo 3, one of the multiplayer features is gaining experience points from doing something correctly for the next level(halowiki.net). The higher the level you are, the more visual achievements you and your created avatar are rewarded with. For example, in Halo 3, if you were level 5 you could only have access to basic appearance on you avatar. Once you attained level 25 you have access to more advanced appearances that you wear while playing other gamers. This idea of advancing your avatar through virtual ranks has motivated gamers to strive to better themselves in the game that they play. This idea could solve many motivational problem students have today. Educational based games could also make the classroom environment more relatable and supportive to the current and rising generations. Students who dislike specific subjects of study such as math, English, history will not want to engage with the material as eagerly as they would with subjects they like. However, video games are almost universally enjoyed by all youth in the United States. A study conducted to see

Running Head: Gaming Education

how many kids ages 12-17 play video games found that 99% of boys and 94% of girls today play video games(Irvine, 2008).In addition, according to the marketing research group called NPD, over 46 million children between the ages of 5-17 are considered gamers(theesa.com). Combining gaming and education would turn school from a negative and boring experience into a positive and fun one. Students attending Quest to learn, a school based on teaching children through video games, learn that building and playing video games can be both educational and fun. A student speaking about joining Quest to learn, Aviv Porath, states I knew that there is going to be game like learning here and that we would learn game design and that there would be a lot of media involved and I really like those kinds of things and I immediately said I am going here (nytimes.com). Regardless of subject, students will enjoy learning more through simulated and virtual experiences than through written assignments. Specific Skills Attained Through Games Games can do more than teach one particular subject such as math, English, or geography, They can train life long skills such as: problem solving, organization, simulations, and critical thinking(Kriz, 2003 & theesa.com, 2011). These skills are expected and sought out by employers everywhere and one way to sharpen these skills is through gaming. In the free online game Sim City 4 and in The River City Project students are immersed in an entire world of creative challenges and tasks that are not only educational, but fun and exciting as well. Compared to classroom education, these games exercise similar skills, but more subtly. Sim City 4 and other games like these should be implemented by teachers to effectively educate students.

Running Head: Gaming Education

In the online game Sim City 4, players become city planners and managers who have multiple responsibilities to attend to. The responsibilities include building residential space, building industrial and commercial space, concern over availability of jobs, estimating land value, funding for everything, dealing with disasters, dealing with crime, politically handling different groups and organizations, and plenty more(simcity.ea.com). The Sim City is recommended by the National Education Association (NEA) as one of the best education games to use by educators(theesa.com). All of these different types of responsibilities relate to both particular academic subjects and skills. The theory behind this is that the study of gaming can teach students the 21st century life skills that employers seek; these include analytical thinking, team building, multitasking, and problem solving under duress (Feller, Associated Press on Gaming, 2006). Finding out the budget to build your city makes you exercise mathematical skills by calculating the cost of all your materials. In addition, figuring out the budget means you: have prioritize what you need to have in your city, what to cut out, and why. This is directly related to problem solving, organizational, and analytical thinking. Games such as Sim City 4, are fun and can shape students to be more effective throughout life. In The River City Project, students play in a virtual town set in the 19th century where they have to use their 21st century knowledge to solve the problems in the game. Initially, The River City Project was made for students in middle school science classes who struggled in learning experimental designs. The River Project (2004) was developed for the following reason:

Running Head: Gaming Education

...learning activities in the processes of scientific inquiry transitional in difficulty between classroom lab experiences and independent individual investigation of a complex real-world situation. Students learned to behave as scientists while they collaboratively identified problems through observation and inference, formed and tested hypotheses, and deduced evidence-based conclusion about underlying causes(muve.gse.harvard.edu). This game exercises the users problem-solving and critical thinking skills by figuring out the proper illness the virtual character has. Along with these skills, the game is designed for students to work in teams to be able to solve the towns health problems. Students work together in small research teams to help the town understand why residents are becoming ill. Students use technology to keep track of clues that hint at causes of illnesses (Muve.gse.harvard.edu).To be able to work effectively and efficiently as a team is a skill almost all employers are looking for in employees. Working in teams is an invaluable skill to have and the more students practice teamwork, the better they will become at it. Practical Video games implemented into our school system are a viable solution to our education problem in the United States because they are practical. Video games are mostly produced for entertainment purposes, not educational. Video game corporations could easily devout time and resources into making well designed educational video games. Compared with classroom expenses, basic educational video games are cheap to produce and are easy to make. The funds for these games and educational programs

Running Head: Gaming Education

in schools can come from private companies. In addition, there are many free educational games online at teachers disposers if they were to implement video games into a small part of their curriculum. Video games and simulations are used by companies to train new employees because they work well (theesa.com). Why shouldnt we do the same for the students of the United States? Basic educational video games are cheap and easy to produce for game developers. The main expenses of producing nearly all modern games are payments to the video games publisher, retailer, and the platforms royalty(latimes.com). Almost 75% of the money that the public spends to buy a new video game goes through 3 different companies. Almost 50% of the cost goes directly to the publishers and not directly to the game developers. Currently, the total expense to package and distribute a CD video game is only four dollars a game(latimes.com). Paying game developers and distribution of the educational video games would only be a fraction of what current games cost. Funds for educationally based games can easily come from education associations and special interest groups such as the National Education Association, National Science Education, and National Educational Technology Standards. The River City Project was developed and funded by some of these groups and the same can be done for future games. There are many free games online that are fun and educational. Sites such as smartutor.com and nobelprize.org offer free educationally based games. Smartutor has won awards from Best Educational Software Awards (BESSIE) and Accredited Business (BBB).These games range from basic math, English, and geography to more complex

Running Head: Gaming Education

games that challenge the users problem-solving and critical thinking skills(2008). These games are not meant to be the entire education of a class, however, they could serve as part of a teachers curriculum in class. Nobelprize.org offers its users with educational games that are target specific areas of study such as: Psychology, anatomy, chemistry, and physics(2011). With proper funding there could be many more free educational games online that could be used by any teacher who has access to computers and the internet.

Video games have a negative connotation attached to them by many groups in the United States. Video game have been cited as this centurys most increasingly worrisome epidemic comparable even to drug and alcohol abuse. All the while, the video game industry continues to market and promote hatred, racism, sexism, and the most disturbing trend: clans and guilds(mavav.org). In addition studies have been done on video games to test their affects on young children. The results showed that children who played too much did not properly develop their brains(findarticles.com). It is true that certain video games are addicting and could possible cause problems in mental development however, not all games are violent. Like any other kind of entertainment, video games should be played in reasonable time frames that do not interfere with schooling, physical activities, and social activities. Educational based video games should be used in conjunction with school, physical activities, social activities. These

Running Head: Gaming Education

games are not intended for hours of mindless addiction, but as a tool to educate students in a controlled and monitored setting.Educationally based games are tools meant for learning, not addicting vices that consume a persons life. Educationally based video games is one of the best answers to motivating and educating our students in the Untied States. Educational video games not only teach subject content such as math, English, and science, but they teach and exercise life long skills as well such as problem solving, critical thinking, and organization. With aid from the government and private companies, educational based video games can become a reality in students lives.

References Bruce I, July 14 2002, Its Official: Video Games Are Bad For Your Brain; New Research Shows. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20020714/ai_n12578018/ Cmu.edu. Students Lack Interest or Motivation.http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/ solveproblem/strat-lackmotivation/index.html Simcity.ed.com. Sim City 4. http://simcity.ea.com/play/classic_instructions.php Obama B. January 6. 2010. Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Summary-February 1, 2010. http:// www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget11/summary/edlite-section1.html Feller B. 2010 December 7.. In Ranking, U.S. Students Trail Global Leaders. USA today. Retrieved from www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-12-07-us-students-internationalranking_N.htm Improving Your Halo 3 Rank. Retrieved from the Halo 3 wiki: http://halowiki.net/p/Ranks Irvine M. September 16. 2008. Survey: 97 Percent of Children Play Video Games. http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/survey-97-percent-of-chil_n_126948.html

Running Head: Gaming Education

Nobelprize.org. 11 Apr 2011. All Educational Productions. http://nobelprize.org/ educational/ all_productions.html Ashton D. (2009). Thinking With Games: Exploring Digital Gaming Imaginaries and Values in Higher Education. Journal of Media Practice. 10 (1) 1-10. DOI: 10.1386/jmpr.10.1.57/1 Neofotistos A. Dec 8. (1995). The Lack of Motivation: Early Adolescents in the Transition Years. http://eserver.org/courses/fall95/76-100g/papers/neofotistos/default.html The River City Project. June 17. (2009). Introducing River City. http:// muve.gse.harvard.edu/muvees2003/index.html SmartTutor.com (2008). Game Zone. http://smarttutor.com/home/gamezone.asp ESA Entertainment Software Association. (2011). Video Games & Education. http:// www.theesa.com/gamesindailylife/education.asp Mavav.org. (2002). Video Game Addiction and Violence in Underground Video Game Cultures. http://www.mavav.org/ Pham A. (2010). Feb 19. . Anatomy of a 60$ Video Game. Los Angles Times. Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollarvideo-game.html Kriz W. (2003) December. Creative Effective Learning Environments and Learning Organizations through Gaming Simulation Design. Sage Publications. 34, 495. DOI:
10.1177/1046878103258201 Corbett S. 2010. Sept. 15. Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html? pagewanted=9&_r=1