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Marisa Duckworth

Professor D. Watkins

T R 10:30

10 November 2016

Playing a Winning Game

When I was a little girl I used to play computer games all the time.

Most of the games that I played were educational games, but I didnt realize

that they were educational at the time because I just saw them as fun

computer games. I played games like JumpStart Kindergarten and JumpStart

1st Grade which helped me learn the skills that I needed for those grades. I

also played My Disney Kitchen which helped me to learn about things that

you should and shouldnt do when you cook different foods. These games

helped me learn things in a fun way that didnt ever feel boring like school

would most of the time. There are many people, however, who think that

video games are bad for your brain, but there is evidence to prove otherwise.

There are many studies that have proven that incorporating video games in

the school system can help children learn more efficiently and they can have

fun while doing it.

Douglas Whatley, the founder and CEO of BreakAway, Ltd stated in this

video that Theres little doubt in anyones mind that putting people into an

environment where they can experience the things that they need to learn,
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they can make mistakes without risk, can try new things. The engagement

from that type of environment is a better way to learn than just sitting them

there in a classroom and throwing information at them. (Schools Use

Games for Learning and Assessment., YouTube.com, 0:36-0:55). I most

definitely agree with him. In an average school, if you get an assignment you

dont get to try the same assignment repeatedly. There seems to always be

this theme of pass fail in our schools and theres no middle ground there,

but with video games you can have that wiggle room. Children need to be

taught that failing isnt always a bad thing, failing can help you advance.

Students can replay games as many times as they want to and theres no

finality to it. This factor can also show and give students perseverance and

determination which is a great mind set to have throughout your life.

While some games can teach you that failing isnt always a bad thing,

others can help with specific subjects that you just may not be good at. Jan

Plass, a professor in NYU and one of the studys lead authors said We found

support for claims that well-designed games can motivate students to learn

less popular subjects, such as math, and that game-based learning can

actually get students interested in the subject matterand can broaden their

focus beyond just collecting stars or points. (Devitt, James. NYU.edu). If I

gave every student in the world a video game of the subject that they were

the worst at they would all probably improve immensely on that subject. If I

were in middle school and someone randomly gave me a computer game to

download and play and it just happened to be for middle school math, I
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wouldve probably gotten Bs in math instead of Ds and Fs if it were fun

enough.

While intentionally educational games can help in school, there are

also many regular video games that can help with learning. In the article Do

Popular Video Games Really Help Students Learn? it says that It is best to

think of the educational value of video games as being on a scale in which

some are very educational while others are not educational at all, with many

games falling somewhere in between. (Do Popular Video Games Really

Help Students Learn? Concordia University.edu). There are many video

games that arent educational that can help you learn too. Action games in

general can help improve your mind. In the video, Can Video Games Make

You Smarter? they state that Surprisingly, action games can also increase

attention to detail in individuals. very practiced action gamers were 58%

better at perceiving fine difference in contrast, which is important because

this is one of the first things to diminish with age (Moffit, Mitchell and

Brown, Gregory. Youtube.com 1:04-2:26). Or there are games like Sim City

that simulate what its like to run a city. Jessica Lindl, the general manager at

Glasslab says My vision of the future is that were preparing kids for 21st

century success by bringing tools into the classroom, like video games, and

engage them at the level theyre used to being engaged outside of the

classroom and that were continuously assessing them in real world, real life

experiences. Theyve taken SimCity and made an educational version of the

game which teaches students systems thinking, human impact on the

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environment, and some of the English language art standards. (Are Video

Games the future of Education? - Future Thinking BRITLAB. YouTube.com

0:09-0:23). This is a prime example of regular video games being used for

educational reasons.

Online games are also great for learning, Mackay R. F says A

series of tests, accompanied by pizza, showed that if the boys could choose

what they read, which they could do with online games, they pushed

themselves harder. That result held for boys who were struggling to begin

with and for those who already were on track. (Mackay, R. F. Stanford

University.edu). Freedom of choice in games is a great tool for learning. In

Minecraft, you can create an unlimited number of things. You can create

different worlds, make art from blocks, use different elements to create

different things, you can kill different monsters, etc. Your options are endless

in Minecraft.

I believe that video games are going to play a huge role in the future of

learning like The Organ Trail used to years ago. In the article Do Popular

Video Games Really Help Students Learn? it says One of the first

educational computer games to arrive on the scene was called Oregon

Trail. The goal of this game was to get you and your virtual family members

safely to the destination. Many would argue that Oregon Trail was (and still

is) an effective teaching aid for students because it teaches players about

preparation and resource management. The game itself is also a history

lesson that teaches about the challenges and hardships many pioneers faced
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on their journey west. (Do Popular Video Games Really Help Students

Learn? Concordia University.edu). There is a video game that Ive played

called Organ Trail which parodies this game to a tee. Its about people the

zombie apocalypse instead of pioneers. I think that younger people would

like this game and I think that it would be a great game to put into schools

too. Young people are obsessed with zombies these days and just like the

original game it teaches you about preparation and resource management,

just with an apocalyptic twist. I enjoyed this game and I can see other people

liking it and learning from it too.

I used to play these kinds of games constantly when I was little and a

lot of the children in this generation are the same as I was. They probably

play different games than I did, but they still play games. I believe that this

future generation of children will be much smarter than we could ever

imagine with all this great technology, especially with video games in the

mainstream media. Well just have to see what the future holds.

Works Cited

Are Video Games the future of Education? - Future Thinking BRITLAB.

YouTube, uploaded by Brit Lab, 3 January 2015,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-DIQsBPC- 8

Devitt, James. Educational Video Games Can Boost Motivation to Learn,

NYU, CUNY Study Shows. NYU, 6 Nov. 2013,

www.nyu.edu/about/news-
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publications/news/2013/november/educational-video-games-can-boost-

motivation-to- learn-nyu-cuny-study-shows-.html.

Do Popular Video Games Really Help Students Learn? Concordia University,

3 Nov 2012, www.education.cu-portland.edu/blog/e-

learning/do-popular-video-games- really-help-students-learn/.

Mackay, R. F. Playing to learn: Panelists at Stanford discussion say using

games as an educational tool provides opportunities for

deeper learning. Stanford, 1 Mar. 2013,

www.stanford.io/1TWWDqR.

Moffit, Mitchell and Brown, Gregory. Can Video Games Make You Smarter?

YouTube, uploaded by AsapSCIENCE, 19 January

2014, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=OOsqkQytHOs.

Schools Use Games for Learning and Assessment. YouTube, uploaded by

Edutopia, 12 May 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-GVEANUEVo