True learning comes from failing. A kid in the classroom has to worry about looking like an idiot. In a game, they’re “raising their hand” all the time
(Glazer, 2006).
So what is it about video games that raises attendance, decreases behavioral issues (Cook et al., 2016) and pushes students to take risks, learn from failure and keep trying until they solve the problem and reach their goal?
Activity 1 - Join the discussion: Pick Gee’s Principle that you identify with most, AND on the padlet explain why it would convince you to start gaming with your class.
tell us who you are in the title of your comment.
References
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Cook, M. P., Morgan, R., Gremo, M. (2016, May 02). Implementing Tabletop Gaming in the English Classroom: Promoting Literacy through Interactive Gameplay. Retrieved from https://minnesotaenglishjournalonline.org/2016/05/02/implementing-tabletop-gaming-in-the-english-classroom-promoting-literacy-through-interactive-gameplay/
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Thorn, C. (2013, November 13). Jim Gee Principles on Gaming [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQAgAjTozk
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Gee, J. P. (2005). Good Video Games and Good Learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85 (2), 33-37. Retrieved from https://jamespaulgee.com/publications/page/4/
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Gee, J. P. (2006) Video Games: Do Video Games Significantly Enhance Literacy? CQ Researcher 16 (40), 939-958. Retrieved from https://jamespaulgee.com/pubs/video-games-and-educational-value/
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Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Glazer, S. (2006). Video Games: Do Video Games Significantly Enhance Literacy? CQ Researcher 16 (40), 939-958. Retrieved fromhttps://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2006111000
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Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video games do affect social outcomes: A meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 40(5), 578-589.
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Griffiths, Mark. (2010). The Role of Context in Online Gaming Excess and Addiction: Some Case Study Evidence. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8. 119-125.
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Shapiro, J. (2014, July 17). How teachers Can Use Video Games in the Humanities Classroom. The Mindshift Guide to Digital Games and Learning. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/35883/how-teachers-can-use-video-games-in-the-humanities-classroom
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[TED]. (2010, March 17). Gaming can make a better world. Jane McGonial. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM&vl=en
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Willis, Judy (2011). The Neuroscience of Joyful Education. Educational Leadership 64. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/4141/the-neuroscience-joyful-education-judy-willis-md.pdf
Video Games and the brain
Judy Willis, a neurologist turned classroom teacher explains that video game play keeps players motivated by quickly placing them at an achievable challenge level, so that they are curious and eager to beat the next attainable task. Video games provide feedback at exactly the moment when the learner/player is most receptive to or in need of that feedback; and the role of dopamine as a reward for the brain keeps the learner/player wanting to work harder and level up - accomplish the next challenge. (Willis, 2011)
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Adolescents spending an hour of gaming a day were recorded to have read an average of 55 minutes daily of pleasure reading, while non-gamers were recorded spending an average of 41 minutes daily (Glazer, 2006). This statistic compels us to explore how video games can be harnessed to develop and enhance literacy skills in the classroom on the one hand, and whether we possibly need to redefine literacy skills and goals on the other.
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According to Gee, “the biggest barrier to school success is the child's ability to deal with complex “academic” language, the sort of language in textbooks”. He explains that in order to play video games, even games like Pokemon, kids have to read, and what they are reading in video games is complex language (Gee, 2006, 953), “a more sophisticated literacy than the simple decoding of words” (Glazer, 2006, 942). David Williamson Shaffer, associate professor of learning science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison argues that video games that teach professional level language can help develop innovative and more creative thinkingthan traditional schooling, thereby better equipping students to compete and succeed in the future job market (Glazer, 2006).
Rather than taking information from one textbook, literacy skills today, or rather digital literacy, requires the ability to gather multiple sources, information found on endless websites, and the need to evaluate the reliability of sources. The text pertaining to a video game also extends beyond the game itself. Players frequently visit websites to receive hints on playing and engage in online discussions and arguments regarding game strategies. The World of Warcraft wiki, the largest game wiki, has over 74, 000 contributors. In addition, according to research at the University of Wisconsin, player’s posts are often written at or above a 12th grade reading level and include scientific reasoning (Glazer, 2006).
Brecht Vandenbroucke
Developing Literacy through Gaming
Retrieved from: https://www.gamepedia.com/wikis
Shapiro (2014) posits we need to treat video games as text. He posits video games are interactive storytelling of our times and will eventually be viewed as classics of literature in centuries to come. He further argues that if video games are shaping the thinking of the next generation, then we need Humanities teachers to help write the stories video games are going to tell and leverage them for educational purposes and social impact (Shapiro, 2014).
Developing IDENTITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH VIDEO GAMES
"Alter Ego" by Robbie Cooper
James Paul Gee, professor of literacy studies at the University of Wisconsin discusses character creation and how the player can express his or her own values within the avatar created. He then states that by completing a game as a self-created character he felt prouder and more connected than he ever did with traditional literary characters from novels or films (Gee, 2003). Game designer Jane McGonigal supports and furthers this view based on research from Stanford University, which shows “playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act in real life, specifically making us more confident, more ambitious and more committed to our real life goals” (TED, 2010, 7:06). This is one of the main reasons why video games have such an impact on players/learners and why they can be a potent tool with tremendous learning potential; a game changer for education and possibly even make the world a better place...
video games as a learning tool
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According to Gee, “games design learning”. He outlines 36 principles of good games and learning.
Watch the video below where Gee teaches 13 of these principles and pick the one principle you identify with most that would convince you to incorporate GBL in your class, and explain why in the Padlet below .
Gee’s 13 Principles
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Principles for Empowering learners:
1. Agent Principle/Co-design Principle - Learner must feel like what they do matters. By playing the game- the choices you make in the game, you co-design the game and so you decide the outcome of the game.
2. Customization Principle – Enables to solve problems in different ways, according to learner’s style but also invites learner to try something new where cost of failure is low, enabling to become a different type of learner
3. Identity Principle - Learning involves taking on and playing with identities in such a way that the learner has real choices (in developing the virtual identity) and ample opportunity to meditate the relationship between new identities and old ones.
4. Manipulation Principle - Learning is embodied, tools to truly involve the mind and body deeply in learning.
Principles for Problem Solving:
5. Well-Ordered Problems Principle - Level design - Each problem is designed so that it gives the learner tools to solve even bigger problems.
6. Pleasantly Frustrating Principle - Regime of competence - The learner gets ample opportunity to operate within, but at the outer edge of his or her resources, so that at those points things are felt as challenging but doable.
7. Cycle of Expertise Principle – There is a challenging problem- learner practices it till they can do it like routine knowledge, then there is a new challenge that the person needs to rethink their routine knowledge and level it up with a new skill that they then need to master as well.
8. Information On Demand Principle - The learner is given explicit information both on-demand and just-in-time, when the learner needs it or just at the point where the information can best be understood and used in practice.
9. The Fish Tank Principle - Gradual complexity when solving a problem. Games gradually ease player in to the more complex system.
10. Sandbox Principle – Safe places to explore and try things
11. Skills as Strategy Principle – Skills are practiced with end goal in mind. Not focused on the skill but on strategy to accomplish goal.
Principles for Deep Understanding:
12. System Based Thinking Principle – Model based reasoning – the foundation of scientific reasoning. Thinking about how variables come together so that we can solve problems and accomplish goals
13. Situated Meaning Principle - The meanings of signs (words, actions, objects, artifacts, symbols, texts, etc.) are not general or decontextualized, they are situated in experience.
What research tells us about gaming and learning
and why it should be applied in education