“Can we imagine a time when, instead of reading about city planning in geography textbooks, children play Sim City? When, instead of sitting in a language lab, they play online games in Spanish with children from other countries? When, instead of GCSEs, A-levels or NVQs, a child can claim that having reached the ‘boss’ level of a computer game is  evidence enough of skills and understanding? “

 What can computer games teach us about education?  Children  play and learn from computer games all the time. They enjoy games and can play for hours. However while their popularity has never been in question, the benefits of gaming always have been.  Much research cites that games are antisocial, mindless fun, and damaging to traditional skills such as literacy. But not all games are the same many are very social they encourage communication with people from around the world. Games can teach many different skills including literacy, lateral thinking and planning.  One of the big appeals of games are the challenges they pose.  Educators can learn

Simulation games teach by putting the player in the moment, children learn to plan they learn the effect of their actions and they play strategically for a given goal. Now children can also write their own computer games.

Today children are part of “the gaming generation’, they are used to interaction, motivational learning.  The Professor of Education at MIT Henry Jenkins believes that teacher must utilise gaming for all its benefits.

However there are still many drawbacks to including games in education. One, is the lessons they teach, some are far from ideal and others are irrelevant. Some games content are far from ideal lesson, many peddle violence and  immoral values.  Facer jokes about the idea of using Grand theft auto to teach citizenship and of course this brings up the need for carefully choosing appropriate games for what you are hoping children learn.

Facer  concludes that  

‘Perhaps the biggest elephant of all is the question of how young people themselves will respond to the introduction of their popular culture into the classroom. Let’s face it – there’s nothing worse than your dad trying to ‘get with the kids’ when you’re a teenager. It’s like seeing your least favourite uncle ‘disco dancing’ to the Libertines – somehow it’s all wrong. Would bringing games into the classroom lead young people to turn to novels and letter-writing in rebellion? “

He is fearful that teachers and parents are missing the point with kids fascination with games. He believes that the real challenges and difficult problems that face young people in the games are their main appeal. They also offer the

responsibility for overcoming them as well as new worlds to explore and new identities to adopt.   Today young people have less freedom, risk and responsibility than children in the past. Computer games show the need for opportunities to take real risks, challenges and have responsibly. Facet concludes “The most important aspects of games which need to be applied to

learning are the motivational ones – the desire to stay in that world, to explore, to progress to the next level, to try stuff out. I haven’t come across that many creations yet with a learning intent that truly plug into this compelling energy.”

Could computer games transfer the way we learn? Is the future of learning playful?
Facer, K. (2005) Could computer games transfer the way we learn? Is the future of learning playful? Vision, 1, pp.1-4

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/vision/VISION_01.pdf