In Chapter 2, “A game isn’t a game without interaction”, of the book Serious Play, the authors set out to study how a wide range of students across multiple years evaluate the effectiveness of video games in the classroom. The authors found that, overall, the majority of students saw value in the experience provided that the game met three criteria - “games should be fun and enjoyable, that interactivity was highly important, and that the games used should be challenging” (pg. 26). The authors of the study had a large sample size – hundreds of students spread over three years and as such had access to quite a bit of data. What most students agreed on was that the games needed to strike the right balance and if they were too educational and not focused enough on just being fun then motivation suffered.
What struck me about this study was that the varying degrees in which students engaged with and enjoyed video games as an educational tool could be compared to any number of alternative lessons: Students have different learning styles and are more likely to achieve success when given the opportunity to learn and demonstrate what they have learned through a variety of means. However, from the study, it does appear that video games offered a higher degree of engagement than other forms of lessons-plans – provided the right balance was struck.
As a high school teacher, I would have liked to know more about how the older students responded to video games in the classroom and what sort of games they would have been drawn to.
Chapter 3, “Impassioned Learning and Minecraft”, examines the effect of a particular game, in this case Minecraft, that is based on a social, cultural, and creative platform that motivates the players to engage and thus learn. The authors seek to understand the deep appeal Minecraft has with its fanbase and seek to learn ways in which this can be applied for educational purposes. The point is made that on the surface, Minecraft is designed as a game to be played, a game that is fun and learning is not the primary objective. The authors state that “[m]ost young people play to relax, escape the pressures of school, to hang out with friends and to be creative” (pg. 37). The way the game presents the user with puzzles to solve and obstacles to overcome As a result, learning is clearly occurring though it is as yet not being assessed. The authors also see the game as providing social opportunities for students to create bonds with their peers – something that many young people find to be a struggle.
I have little experience with Minecraft though I have seen it played a few times by children and I could see that they were fully engaged with solving the puzzles that were presented to them. Finding ways to measure and assess the learning that is occurring is the great challenge and though the authors attempt to do this through interviews, I can’t help but think that school boards and education departments will want something more substantial. This, of course, has always been a problem with education as a whole so this shouldn’t be a reason to dismiss the value of gaming.
I once had a project turned in that was created using Minecraft – I didn’t fully understand what the game was at the time. The project involved students creating a Sumerian city-state and most opted to do this on a poster. When I received the project based on Minecraft, I was blown away by the creativity that was afforded these two students. I am curious to know what sort of machine is needed to run Minecraft as most computers in my school are Chromebooks that are not powerful at all.
The common theme I see between these chapters is engagement – how do teachers get students engaged with lessons in a way that fosters learning. In so many ways, this is one of the oldest struggles within education, video games are simply a new methodology that needs more study to understand its value. While chapter 2 studies the sort of games that students find effective, it is also clear that what some students engage with, others do not. Again, this is nothing new in education – when I was a student, some loved movie time, others fell asleep. Chapter 3 provides an example of a game, Minecraft, that has been highly successful in engaging millions of players for many years. This appears to be the type of game that would tick the boxes of engagement and learning that the students are referring to in chapter 2. From my perspective, the major obstacle isn’t so much in assessing the learning that is occurring, rather it is in proving that learning is happening to the decision makers who write curriculums and hold the purse-strings.
What struck me about this study was that the varying degrees in which students engaged with and enjoyed video games as an educational tool could be compared to any number of alternative lessons: Students have different learning styles and are more likely to achieve success when given the opportunity to learn and demonstrate what they have learned through a variety of means. However, from the study, it does appear that video games offered a higher degree of engagement than other forms of lessons-plans – provided the right balance was struck.
As a high school teacher, I would have liked to know more about how the older students responded to video games in the classroom and what sort of games they would have been drawn to.
Chapter 3, “Impassioned Learning and Minecraft”, examines the effect of a particular game, in this case Minecraft, that is based on a social, cultural, and creative platform that motivates the players to engage and thus learn. The authors seek to understand the deep appeal Minecraft has with its fanbase and seek to learn ways in which this can be applied for educational purposes. The point is made that on the surface, Minecraft is designed as a game to be played, a game that is fun and learning is not the primary objective. The authors state that “[m]ost young people play to relax, escape the pressures of school, to hang out with friends and to be creative” (pg. 37). The way the game presents the user with puzzles to solve and obstacles to overcome As a result, learning is clearly occurring though it is as yet not being assessed. The authors also see the game as providing social opportunities for students to create bonds with their peers – something that many young people find to be a struggle.
I have little experience with Minecraft though I have seen it played a few times by children and I could see that they were fully engaged with solving the puzzles that were presented to them. Finding ways to measure and assess the learning that is occurring is the great challenge and though the authors attempt to do this through interviews, I can’t help but think that school boards and education departments will want something more substantial. This, of course, has always been a problem with education as a whole so this shouldn’t be a reason to dismiss the value of gaming.
I once had a project turned in that was created using Minecraft – I didn’t fully understand what the game was at the time. The project involved students creating a Sumerian city-state and most opted to do this on a poster. When I received the project based on Minecraft, I was blown away by the creativity that was afforded these two students. I am curious to know what sort of machine is needed to run Minecraft as most computers in my school are Chromebooks that are not powerful at all.
The common theme I see between these chapters is engagement – how do teachers get students engaged with lessons in a way that fosters learning. In so many ways, this is one of the oldest struggles within education, video games are simply a new methodology that needs more study to understand its value. While chapter 2 studies the sort of games that students find effective, it is also clear that what some students engage with, others do not. Again, this is nothing new in education – when I was a student, some loved movie time, others fell asleep. Chapter 3 provides an example of a game, Minecraft, that has been highly successful in engaging millions of players for many years. This appears to be the type of game that would tick the boxes of engagement and learning that the students are referring to in chapter 2. From my perspective, the major obstacle isn’t so much in assessing the learning that is occurring, rather it is in proving that learning is happening to the decision makers who write curriculums and hold the purse-strings.