Game Changer

‘Can digital games, especially well-designed educational games, help reshape our nation’s approach to learning and growing?’ This is the question Ann My Thai, David Lowenstein, Dixie Ching and David Rejeski have sought to answer in their report for The Joan Ganz Cooney Center titled Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children’s learning and health. Can it? I don’t know…but I am keen to keep learning more about this new concept.

According to statistics based on American children, three-quarters play computer and video games, and on average children as young as eight can spend as long as they spend in school engaged in media activity (Thai et al, 2009, 6). I think it is fair to say that many children, teenagers and even adults love playing computer games. What the current research out is saying is that instead of seeing computer games as ‘the enemy’ why not harness the potential that they possess to actually add to the learning and education that these students are receiving.

At present more information and research is needed into gaming and education. Throughout their research Thai et al have found that ‘the research has not fully demonstrated with precision why or how they work, as well as how to design them for specific learning goals’ (2009, 7). They believe that in order to really harness the benefits of digital games these issues need to be addressed:

• · Deepening the knowledge base about the benefits and limitations of games for children’s learning;
• · Designing games that increase learning, whether about health, literacy, science, history, or problem-solving;
• · Identifying what elements (i.e., which settings, program interventions, or types of adult guidance) make game-playing more effective;
• · Determining how games can best be integrated into the classroom and other learning environments (2009, 7).

Advances in digital media have had an increasing impact on the transformation of children’s play. Studies have shown that children as early as preschool aged on are ‘actively immersed in play within a new, virtual playground’ (Thai et al, 2009, 11). Research would suggest that children start actively engaging in video game play by around 6 years of age in such mediums as digital games, feeding virtual pets, and creating online identities. This type of engagement has become almost second nature for 21^st century children who have been coined with the term ‘digital natives’ (2009, 11).

Children learning through ‘play’ is a concept that has been highlighted in many research studies of late that focuses on students learning in the digital world as part of a participatory culture. Henry Jenkins in his ‘White Paper’ identifies eleven core skills; play being one of them, which students need to participate within the new media landscape. These new skills, Jenkins believes ‘provide support systems to help youth improve their core competencies as readers and writers’ (2005, 19). These core skills include: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking and negotiation (2005, 21). Many of these skills are developed through game playing.

The role of play in education is one that appears to be increasing and moving away from what traditional schooling consists of. Jenkins describes play as ‘the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving’ (Thai et al., 2009, 12). Students do this naturally through many different mediums and researchers have long been saying that this type of interaction between students and their environment actually helps in the development of their cognitive skills and would be beneficial in a classroom setting.

When you think about young children, play is an important factor in learning general norms e.g. the triangle block doesn’t fit in the square hole; it fits in this triangle hole here. It is in this relaxed environment that children learn about interactions with others, their environment and the tools/toys they are using. From a psychologist discipline play is considered one of the most important elements involved in child development. It is during this experimental stage that children start to give their cognitive skills a real workout as they are finding out things for themselves and learning how to engage within their environment.

Much of the research I have looked at that promotes video games for learning focuses on the whole cognitive area. Thai et al’s report also does this, but a key part of their research actually focuses on the benefits that video games can offer in terms of children’s health. This I thought was an interesting angle to take as I had thought that most popular opinion would argue that video games are cause for a lot of youth health concerns such as child obesity. As I have done further reading on the topic (and a basic Google scholar search), there seems to be quite a bit of research into this topic.

In their report they state,

“Well-designed digital games show significant potential to promote children’s growth and healthy development. They can foster skills and knowledge that help children with academic learning, as well as habits which contribute to better health” (2009, 18). The report notes that digital games can help in improving children’s health from physical fitness and health promotion to disease management.

There are many various types of games for health on the market. A common one that has the kids off the couch and actively engaging is the Wii Fit series. These games have become very popular over the past few years and have demonstrated great results in improving people’s physical fitness. I had a friend that was trying to lose weight who did half an hour of Wii Fit activities each day (as well as changing her diet) and lost 5kgs in 3 weeks.

Another game that promotes physical health is Dance Dance Revolution a game designed for the Playstation 3 console. It involves players moving their feet on a dance mat following the arrows and directions given on the screen. I have played this game personally and it is a lot of fun and a great workout…I was exhausted afterwards. These types of games would be perfect for a rainy day when the students are stuck in the classroom at lunch due to wet weather policy.

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While these games and many others have been designed to help increase physical fitness while having fun, there are many other games that target different areas such as developing healthy long-term habits and disease management. This featured article gives many examples of different types of games to cover each of these different aspects. I didn’t really know that these types of games existed on the market and am curious to see what else is out there.

This article and others I have read on my journey into the value of video games in education have really opened my eyes to the potential that they poses and the wide array of options that are available.