Video Games as an Education Tool
Video Games as an Education Tool
Scott M. Robertson
Introduction
Video games have matured dramatically since the days of Pong in the 1970s. The complex game-play, flexibility, and interactivity offered by video games have enabled them to attract a broad user base of millions of children and adults. A survey conducted by the Interactive Digital Software Association in 2000-2001 found that 60 percent of all Americans (or 145 million people) play interactive video games regularly and contribute to a $5 billion industry through purchases of new games (IDSA, 2001). Forty-three percent of these users are women, suggesting that game-play is no longer singly a male interest. The study also revealed that the largest group of players is children and adults in the age range of 35 years and younger. Altogether, video games now “constitute a powerful cultural industry that is constantly evolving technological applications; it is a symbolic universe frequented by millions of citizens." (Kirremuir, 2003)
Despite that huge popularity, research into video games and their potential uses has taken time to be considered a valid area of exploration in academia. Very few researchers in any discipline were examining the facets of video games just five years ago. Back then, “it would [have been] possible to survey the entire field of game research without raising much of a sweat.” (Smith, 2002) However, much has changed since then with the increasingly larger impact digital technology has had on modern society. A number of new studies and preliminary examinations have investigated the benefits of video games. “The last few years have seen a significant increase in the community of researchers studying computer and video games. …The subject matter is increasingly taken more seriously by the general public, mass media, and the academic community." (Kirremuir, 2003) Researchers and scholars from very diverse fields, such as computer science, comparative literature, filmography studies, graphic design, and theater studies now contribute to a better understanding of the principles of computer games and their uses (Smith, 2002).
Because children and young adults still constitute the vast majority of gamers (according to the IDSA study), it would be prudent to direct more of that research on video games toward studying their educational potential and instructional uses in the classroom.
Educational Use of Games
A large number of studies in recent years have examined the educational impact of computer games in their use by children and young adults. Some of these have looked at the games’ use in the context of the classroom, and many of the studies have provided evidence that video games can produce learning gains that are equal to or greater than traditional instructional methodology.
Studies conducted by the Electronic Games for Math and Science project at the University of British Columbia have investigated the role of mathematical games in classroom instruction at Canadian schools (Klawe, 1998). In one such study, researchers employed the game Phoenix Quest in four grade 5 classrooms and one grade 6/7 classroom. Developed for three years at UBC, Phoenix Quest is an interactive game designed to appeal to young girls. Phoenix Quest utilizes three primary elements: (a) a storyline, b) interactive communication between players in the game and the story characters, and c) mathematical puzzle activities hidden within story activities. A player progresses through levels in Phoenix Quest collecting story chapters and mathematical puzzles by succeeding at various tasks and activities, such as solving mathematical puzzles, searching for answers to questions posed by story characters during conversations, and writing back to the story characters. Mathematical concepts represented in Phoenix Quest include fractions, negative numbers, ratios, simple graph algorithms, rectangular and polar coordinates, logic, and number sequences.
In pilot testing of Phoenix Quest, use of the game by itself produced only moderate learning gains. However, when students used the game in conjunction with supporting classroom activities (e.g. writing, paper and pencil activities, and discussions) the researchers observed highly substantial learning gains. In a seven-week empirical examination of Phoenix Quest, student pairs played Phoenix quest for 30 minutes twice every week on computers in their classroom. Five classrooms participated in the study which involved three conditions: a) two experimental groups that completed worksheets and engaged in discussions in conjunction with playing Phoenix Quest (EWD), and b) one experimental group that received lectures by an outside speaker in conjunction with playing Phoenix Quest (EL), and c) a control group that did not play Phoenix Quest (CG). For the first three weeks, no supporting activities were run in any of the classrooms in conjunction with the game. For the last four weeks, supporting activities were carried out in all the classrooms. During this later four-week period, students in the EWD classrooms engaged in paper and pencil worksheet activities whose format was based on puzzles. Then they discussed the outcomes of these activities in sessions that involved the full class. In the EL classroom, a guest speaker presented a lecture about the mathematical concepts about which the students were learning and showed their relationship to the mathematical puzzles the students used. According to the study’s results, the three grade 5 experimental groups showed significant improvement in their performance between the pre-test and post-test, with a mean increase of 20.3 percent. Of these groups, the one that received the guest lecture improved the most, with a change of 23 percent. The EL group showed no improvement, but the researchers conducting the study suspected that this was due to a lack of interest in the guest speaker’s presentation, higher starting scores than the other groups’, and previous exposure to Phoenix Quest. The control group showed a change in performance between the pre-test and the post-test of -3 percent, but this was not statistically significant.
Another study by the School of Health Information Management at the University of Sydney in Australia investigated the use of a Web-based health care simulation game by college students (Westbrooke, 2001). The Health Game was created to encourage the development of health information seeking skills, to provide students with opportunities to interact with the complexities of the health care system, and enable them to solve realistic hypothetical situations in a setting that facilitated exploration. Fifty-eight students participated in a four-week prototype test of the game. The participants all filled out pre- and post- questionnaires before and after their use of the simulation. The questionnaires consisted of four sections: 1) interest in and knowledge of the health system, 2) access and experiences with computers, 3) views of teamwork at college, and 4) demographic data. The researchers used the health system knowledge sections on the pre and post questionnaires, which contained three questions, as pre- and post- test assessments.
Two questions on the questionnaires assessed the subjects’ factual knowledge of the public and private health insurance systems in Australia. These questions included a short scenario describing a patient admitted to a hospital who was scheduled for a surgical operation; the first question described a patient who was privately insured, whereas the second question described a patient who was publicly insured. Students were asked about the extent to which Medicare or the private insurance company would cover the cost of the operation. The number of students providing correct responses to scenarios 1 and 2 increased significantly between the pre and post questionnaires from 27 and 58 percent respectively to 49 and 95 percent respectively. To assess information finding skills, the pre- and post- questionnaires also asked students about sources of health information which they could access for information for a friend who had recently arrived from an overseas country. In the pre-questionnaire, the mean number of sources identified by students was 2.4, and 24 percent of subjects were unable to list at least 2 sources. In contrast, subjects on the post-questionnaire listed a mean of 3 sources, and only 8 subjects were unable to list at least 2 sources.
In a long-term case study conducted by The Learning Circuit, a British educational organization, students used the simulation game Sim City in classrooms for a term. (Learning Circuit, 2004) Four teachers were involved in the study, one from each of four schools (Burlington Junior School, Corpus Christi RC Primary School, Ellingham Primary School, and St. Matthews C of E Primary School). The teachers became familiar with the software and instructional materials prior to the study and customized them to fit their classroom’s needs. Each teacher selected students to participate in the study; some of them were drawn from more able mathematics groups, while others were drawn from less able mathematics groups. Most of the participants had used instructional technology in previous classes, so inexperience with instructional software was not a factor in the study.
According to the study’s technology learning goals, students were expected to be able to:
• build a simple, successful city, describe their use of the software to complete that task, and understand how the task involved relates to planning a town
• explore an existing simulation and make predictions about the consequences of decisions that affected this simulation
• explore the effects produced by altering variable settings underlying a provided city, analyze the findings produced, present those findings in a report illustrated with graphics, and share their findings and cities with others using the Internet.
The mathematical goals of the study emphasized:
• Extracting and interpret information presented to students in tables and graphs in order to solve problems
• Identifying which data is most relevant to a task at-hand
• Using percentages and ratios to solve problems
• Predicting and generating hypotheses about potential solutions to a given problem.
The results of the study showed that students were able to successfully accomplish the learning goals established for them. Future work by The Learning Circuit will examine whether the progress made can transfer to another simulation scenario, such as the development of a theme park in a game like Roller Coaster Tycoon.
A study by The Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia group (TEEM) in 2002 (McFarlane, 2002) examined the current state of educational games and issues and concerns affecting educational game adoption by classrooms in the U.K. Using an evaluation framework provided by TEEM, pairs of teachers evaluated each title they were given within the context of their classroom. The games were used in the classroom multiple times during the summer 2001 academic term. Games selected for the evaluation trials primarily consisted of selections from simulation and quest genres, though a few of the games did contain mini arcade-style games within their plot. Because many of these commercial games did not provide content relevant to the teachers’ curriculum, teachers in most cases did not feel that students were learning valuable content-related knowledge. This suggests that games must be better aligned with curriculum content standards in order to be a viable classroom tool. However, they did feel that their students learned generalized critical thinking and group-work skills while playing the games. Individualized skills learned from the games’ context included problem solving, decision making, sequencing, and deductive reasoning. Group-work skills learned included group-based decision-making, negotiation, peer tutoring, cooperation, collaboration, and co-learning.
The TEEM study also involved evaluations of educational games by parents and students. Eight-five percent of parents in the study felt that the games assisted their children in learning relevant skills, in addition to providing entertainment value. Students suggested that they learned planning, decision-making, and team-work skills while playing the games. The TEEM report proposed that video games overall “provide a forum in which learning arises as a result of tasks stimulated by the content of the games, knowledge is developed through the content of the game, and skills are developed as a result of playing the game.”
In another study, Amory et al (1998) assessed how video games affect students learning biology problem-solving skills. Fifty-eight first-year environmental biology students participated in the study. To determine prior knowledge, the subjects answered a series of multiple choice questions about the evolution of man. Then each subject participated in a practical learning session. In the experimental condition, students played an educational video game, developed by the research staff, for a period of at least two hours. In the control condition, students were given a number of practical biology problems to solve. Afterwards, all the subjects completed a post-test to evaluate what they had learned during the practical session. Students appeared to learn information equally from both media, which suggests that video games can be a viable method for teaching scientific material.
Types of Games
Video games vary widely in their type and subject matter. Author Marc Prensky suggests the following categorization of video games in his recent book Digital Game-Based Learning:
● Action games (ex. Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, )
● Adventure games (ex. The Adventure of Monkey Island, Halo, Myst)
● Fighting games (ex. Street Fighter, Star Wars Epic Duels, Clash of the Gladiators)
● Puzzle games (ex. Tetris, Brick Breaker, Minesweeper)
● Role-playing games (ex. Final Fantasy XI, Neverwinter Nights, City of Heroes)
● Simulation games (ex. Sim City, The Sims, Stoktrak)
● Sports games (ex. Super Web Soccer, MVP Baseball 2004, Madden NFL 2004)
● Strategy games (ex. Ages of Empires, Civilization, Roller Coaster Tycoon)
Simulations, in particular, have gained popularity in recent years for their educational potential. Simulations provide a model of a real-world system in which a player can manipulate variables and the relationships between them and take large risks without fear of real-world consequences. This complex interaction enables simulations to place learners “in a unique position to understand a system’s dynamics.” (Squire, 2000) Laurel (1991) suggests that educational simulations excel in their ability to represent experience as opposed to information because learning by direct experience has been demonstrated in past studies to be more effective and enjoyable than learning by communicating facts alone.
Simulations are already a recognized part of educational training in commercial and government environments. They are used in many business and economic industries to teach financial management skills, in medical fields to test various treatments and train medical staff in procedures, and in the military to train soldiers in real-life combat scenarios. (Kirriemuir, 2004)
The Sim City series of games developed by Maxis is perhaps the most popular commercial simulation used in educational settings. (Sim City, 2000). Players must design their own cities from scratch using a metropolitan budget and be able to withstand the wrath of various natural disasters and disruptions, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, and public protests. Various research studies have examined Sim City and similar simulations within the context of classroom learning. The studies have consistently reported that these games promote favorable learning outcomes and facilitate group discussion and intricate experimentation. The games also have been shown to enhance more skills than what might be immediately apparent from the context of the game; for Sim City this includes engineering skills, urban planning, economics, environmental awareness, and mathematics. (Kirriemuir, 2004)
Applications of Educational Games
Social Learning
Video games provide the structured environment needed for learning complex series of behaviors, such as social and communications skills. (Raybourn, 2003) Most modern computer games each the game player “progressively complex behaviors and associations, through progressively difficult challenges followed by regular positive reinforcement (e.g. progressively difficult enemies, each of whom yields new and better spoils).” (Buchanan, 2003) For this reason, many games have been designed to teach and to train interpersonal and intercultural communication principles and skills. A book by John Malouff and Nikola Schutte, entitled Games to Enhance Social and Emotional Skills: Sixty-Six Games That Teach Children, Adolescents, and Adults Skills Crucial to Success in Life, found more than 60 computer games that can increase the social and communication skills of young children, adolescents, and adults.
Thus, it seems natural that video games could also be used to teach more basic social skills to students with cognitive disabilities, such as those with autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, and non-verbal learning disabilities. The Shirley Foundation in the U.K. recently funded a three-year study of a virtual environment for teaching social skills to students with autism called AS Interactive. (Kerr, 2002) The project assessed the potential feasibilities of developing virtual simulations for students with autism in both single-user and collaborative environments and identified essential features of these environments that are needed to facilitate social skills training and defining solid interfaces.
References
Buchanan, K. (2003) “Behaviorism and Computer Games.”
URL:
Interactive Digital Software Association. (2001). “State of the Industry: Report 2000-2001.”
URL:
Kerr, S., J. (2002). “Scaffolding: Design issues in single and collaborative virtual environments for social skills learning.”
Eighth Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments
Kirriemuir, J. (2002). “The Relevance of Gaming and Gaming Consoles to the Higher Education/Further Education Learning Experience.”
Klawe, M. M. (1998). “When does the use of computer games and other interactive multimedia software help students learn mathematics?”
Department of Computer Science,
The University of British Columbia
URL:
Learning Circuit (2004). “Using a simulation game to aid in the understanding of number.”
URL:
Malouff, J., M. Schutte, N., S. (1998). Games to Enhance Social and Emotional Skills: Sixty-Six Games That Teach Children, Adolescents, and Adults Skills Crucial to Success in Life.
Raybourn, E. M, Waern, A. (2003). “Social Learning through gaming.”
Sandia National Laboratories/Swedish Institute of Computer Science
Westbrooke, J., I., Braithwaite, J. (2001). “The Health Care Game: Evaluation of a Heuristic, Web-based simulation.”
Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 12, 89-104
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