IDEF08 Develop: Games for Education
Nov 27, 2008 Articles
During the symposium, a session was held by Derek Robertson (Learning and Teaching Scotland), with a very interesting topic.
He is the “National Advisor for Emerging Technologies” in Scotland, and during his session he discusses the current (and growing) use of games as a tool for educating children. (To see some of the great innovative stuff happening over there, click here) Although I was already familiar with educational titles, having played them myself as a child, what Derek presents to us is the use of existing mainstream titles like Nintendogs, and even Guitar Hero as a tool for motivating and encouraging students to participate and excel in activities.
As an example, Derek shows us how students poor in mathematics use Brain Training (by Dr Kawashiwa) as a tool to “practise doing their sums”, as well as clips of the students stating that the game actually helped them improve. Further on, we also see clips of students taking care of a Nintendog in groups, while keeping a detailed diary of their activities.
What we see here is the effective use of games to motivate students. And here are the reasons why I think it works.
Immediate Reward
If we were to consider a math test, a student would have to sit the test, and then wait for the results of the test to be given to him. When a student plays Brain Training, what we see instead is immediate feedback of the student’s performance, be it audio feedback (a happy sound signalling a successful answer), or visual feedback (big green tick). In a completely unrelated news article I read awhile ago, it quotes:
“It’s kids,” says John Mason, one of Saber Tech’s founders. “They run fast enough they get the (generator) lights to flash. It gives them a visual reward.”
This action/reward factor motivates a student to continue performing, and also to improve as well, be it in mathematical ability, or in physical ability.
Personal Connection
Going back to the earlier example of Nintendogs, students are assigned the task of maintaining the well-being of their pet. Students are therefore personally connected to it (come on, who doesn’t love the cute doggies?) and as a result are more willing to participate in associated tasks, such as maintaining the daily diary, which improves their writing and ability to express ideas and thoughts.
Furthermore, as a group task, it is harder for a single student to slack off.
Relevant Tasks
Sometimes, tasks are assigned to students, most of them having nothing to relate to. For example, some students question the need for Calculus if there were no real-life relevance.
Later in the session, Derek demonstrates how teacher may set tasks relevant to a game played by students. For example, students were instructed to build a arts&craft guitar, after they had been playing Guitar Hero. Since the task was relevant to the game, students were able to relate to the task, and are therefore more motivated. As a result, we see how the use of games allowed the teacher to set a task that is more effective in motivating students to participate in.
Conclusion
I found this talk to be one of the most interesting sessions of the symposium, and it is nice to see some positive feedback about the effect of games on children, instead of the news we hear about gaming addictions and killings.
Tags: Develop, Education, Games, IDEF, Melbourne Exhibition Centre, Symposium
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