Video games at school

After visiting lot of schools in California and Iowa, I found that lot of school are providing Video games. I asked lots of teacher according to their statement Video games provides balance and coordination. One of the benefits of the equipment, especially the Dance Dance Revolution (for the PS2), is that it has “gotten some kids moving that used to sit on the stage after lunch. They ask me if they can play the games and we can supervise them through our camera system at the school,” said Sheffield.
But I don’t think video games help to develop kids or child’s education. But i want to know what your suggestion about video games in school.

Tags: Video, at, games, school

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Permalink Reply by Kev on February 25, 2009 at 8:37am

Why do you think that? I mean let's be honest here, if you can say you don't think I can just say I do think it and then the discussion is done right?

Our kids learn more about learning in video games than they do in school. I'd suggest reading one of the countless books on the subject if you are a video game "hater" so to speak. My personal favorite is Everything Bad is Good for You. The scholarly favorite is What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Gee.

Video games do not generally teach content, that is why so many people don't see them as educational. Truth is, content should not be our number 1 priority in education. Our priority should be teaching kids how to learn content. I cannot provide my kids with 1/1000th of what Google can on a given topic but if I can teach them (or if video games can) how to learn new information then I have done a great thing.

VGs are literally BUILT on the scaffolding and differentiation concepts most scientists say are at the core of education. VGs teach concepts early on and then ask, no demand, players build on those concepts to be successful. Isn't that what teaching is all about?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Cove on February 25, 2009 at 11:29am

Hi Kev,

You mentioned that video games can be used to teach kids how to learn content. Do you have any examples of games being used in the classroom that are doing this?

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on February 25, 2009 at 5:27pm

Sarah,
Axis and Allies-- WWII
Civ 4--Ancient civilizations
Railroad Tycoon--how the rr changed the US
Ageof Mythology--ancient Greek and Roman culture
Sim City--how cities work
any number of problem solving software packages teach problem solving software
any number of other history related simulation on Civil War, Westward Expansion, Vietnam War, WW1

There are free history based simulations online including Travian, Tribal Wars, Conqueror

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on February 25, 2009 at 10:10am

My colleague has a blog that is a part of Tech & Learning's Digital Learning Environment Blogs where he posts often about the benefits of gaming and student achievement. Marc Prensky also writes a lot about this at http://www.marcprensky.com/.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on February 25, 2009 at 10:54am

These examples about using games as babysitter, exercise, or surveillance don't seem to have much to do with education.

There are a lot of good uses of games, though. I did a presentation for the K12online conference last year (and you can watch it in full - only 20 min) called Games in Education. Plus there is a companion wiki here with lots of links and resources including the games themselves, books and research.