http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/17/video.games.ap/index.html
This could be great. Who remembers Oregon Trail? I loved that game.
This could be great. Who remembers Oregon Trail? I loved that game.
educational gaming?
- Thread starter Darth_Jonas
- Start date
Who's read Ender's Game? Remember that game he played with the giant in the meadow? It was a creative problem solving game.
Anyway -- the problem with using games as an educational tool is that games are limited by their programming. There are a finite number of ways to solve any given problem, whereas in reality, there are virtually endless variations on solutions to practical problems.
We want little Billy to be able to think creatively to solve problems under a great deal of stress. Little Billy's character is a survivor of a train derailment. His friend has a severed artery. For some reason, little Billy doesn't think about the train having a first aid kit, but he knows how to tie a tournequet. He chooses to solve the problem the first way he comes up with (which is what we all do under stressful situations) but the game has not provided him with any strips of cloth or a belt or even thick cord or rope that has the appropriate physics. The programming only allowed him to find the first aid kit.
You see, we've just programmed little Billy to always look for a first aid kit, even if there might not be one in real life. That is a problem.
Anyway -- the problem with using games as an educational tool is that games are limited by their programming. There are a finite number of ways to solve any given problem, whereas in reality, there are virtually endless variations on solutions to practical problems.
We want little Billy to be able to think creatively to solve problems under a great deal of stress. Little Billy's character is a survivor of a train derailment. His friend has a severed artery. For some reason, little Billy doesn't think about the train having a first aid kit, but he knows how to tie a tournequet. He chooses to solve the problem the first way he comes up with (which is what we all do under stressful situations) but the game has not provided him with any strips of cloth or a belt or even thick cord or rope that has the appropriate physics. The programming only allowed him to find the first aid kit.
You see, we've just programmed little Billy to always look for a first aid kit, even if there might not be one in real life. That is a problem.
I pretty much agree with what you said, Basil. Games are just limited in scope to do things like that. Even if it provided you the option of the tourniquet, it most likely doesn't teach someone how to appropriately apply one. You'll just have to wait for full VR if you want that sort of stuff. Then it's not really a game because many levels of abstraction would be missing. Then it gets in the realm of simulations potentially.
Games are all about abstraction. My belief is that playing many types of non-educational games will do just fine, because you learn how to intuitively solve problems by generally abstracting concepts in a situation like you have in many video games. You probably don't consciously relate a current, real-life situation to a concrete situation in a game, but the mental process is following the circuits in your brain that was strengthened by abstract gaming. In my mind, video games have given me much, from motor skills, the abstraction abilities, determination, spatial thinking, and who knows what else. I personally attribute Gran Turismo for teaching me how to drive.
Of course, I'm sure there are some outside variables that might prevent or enhance someone's capability of gaining from video games. Just too much we don't know about the mind, about subjective experience as opposed to objective. Some other person out there may have become a terrible driver playing Gran Turismo. Or maybe a poor soul out there can't play GTA3 and take away an appreciation for the scale of its world, instead wanting to go on a rampage through city streets. In my subjective experience, I feel that video games have enhanced me on many levels, because I feel I have really paid attention and worked at taking whatever I can from them. What else would or could I attribute that to? Video games have been the most consistent aspect of my life. Maybe the aforementioned qualities are innate. But it's probably more accurate to say that my ability to abstractly derive this stuff was started as a seed in my earlier gaming days.
Games are all about abstraction. My belief is that playing many types of non-educational games will do just fine, because you learn how to intuitively solve problems by generally abstracting concepts in a situation like you have in many video games. You probably don't consciously relate a current, real-life situation to a concrete situation in a game, but the mental process is following the circuits in your brain that was strengthened by abstract gaming. In my mind, video games have given me much, from motor skills, the abstraction abilities, determination, spatial thinking, and who knows what else. I personally attribute Gran Turismo for teaching me how to drive.
Of course, I'm sure there are some outside variables that might prevent or enhance someone's capability of gaining from video games. Just too much we don't know about the mind, about subjective experience as opposed to objective. Some other person out there may have become a terrible driver playing Gran Turismo. Or maybe a poor soul out there can't play GTA3 and take away an appreciation for the scale of its world, instead wanting to go on a rampage through city streets. In my subjective experience, I feel that video games have enhanced me on many levels, because I feel I have really paid attention and worked at taking whatever I can from them. What else would or could I attribute that to? Video games have been the most consistent aspect of my life. Maybe the aforementioned qualities are innate. But it's probably more accurate to say that my ability to abstractly derive this stuff was started as a seed in my earlier gaming days.
Good point Roach.
Yes. I think that if video games are ever used as serious educational tools, it will either be games like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy or games that have been carefully engineered to encourage the students' minds to learn to solve problems by thinking abstractly. In fact, they will have to retain a level of separation from reality in order to remain abstract.
The classic joke is the gamer who tries to solve a real life problem the same way he does in the game. Obviously not a good thing.
I think that's what made the game in Ender's Game so good. It was fully fantasy, but it taught him to look at problems from several angles and to push past the limitation he imposed on himself.
Of course, that game programmed itself after a certain point, which is something I've mentioned before in a discussion about the future of gaming, but I don't expect to see any time soon.
Yes. I think that if video games are ever used as serious educational tools, it will either be games like Brain Age and Big Brain Academy or games that have been carefully engineered to encourage the students' minds to learn to solve problems by thinking abstractly. In fact, they will have to retain a level of separation from reality in order to remain abstract.
The classic joke is the gamer who tries to solve a real life problem the same way he does in the game. Obviously not a good thing.
I think that's what made the game in Ender's Game so good. It was fully fantasy, but it taught him to look at problems from several angles and to push past the limitation he imposed on himself.
Of course, that game programmed itself after a certain point, which is something I've mentioned before in a discussion about the future of gaming, but I don't expect to see any time soon.
on a simpler level, you can apply math and science problems to it. For kiddies, having a Mario game teaching a number of things would be doable. Like many things, the military has proven games to be an effective tool. Flight simulators have long been a staple of training, and about 5-6 years ago, the military had a game (Desert Storm was an adaptation, I think. Ask Asylum, he had it.) that troops played to get different scenarios down.
Age of Empires is an easy one to use for history. There are all sorts of nuggets in there on historical info. The new Wii game where you're the surgeon might be able to teach anatomy (for whatever class you dissect crap in).
Age of Empires is an easy one to use for history. There are all sorts of nuggets in there on historical info. The new Wii game where you're the surgeon might be able to teach anatomy (for whatever class you dissect crap in).
I didn't learn anything from Oregon Trail. I just learned you shouldn't waste bullets on rabbits.
And have you ever shot a rabbit? If not, then the game was successful in churning out yet another good little boy who doesn't torture small woodland creatures.