Hey, Teachers – Lay Off Video Games
Video games are a scourge that's turning our pupils into antisocial gorehounds, right? Actually, argues, Mike Stuchbery, they can be the vehicles for some pretty sophisticated, unconscious learning…
I am a teacher. I am also a gamer.
It’s a funny place to be. I can’t begin to list the number of occasions in which I’ve witnessed a professional colleague lay the blame for lack of progress and antisocial behaviour at the feet of the latest FIFA or Call of Duty. As I’m usually sitting there waiting to get home and play some Assassin’s Creed, I can’t help but feel a little guilt by association.
Imagine my glee, then, when I heard of research from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, showing that students who play online video games lead those who don’t by between 15 to 17 points in reading and maths tests.
Personally, I’m not in the least bit surprised.
Unconscious learning
While I am no neuroscientist or cognitive psychologist, I have long suspected that modern video games represent a sort of unconscious learning experience that combine reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving and knowledge delivery, all wrapped up in a colourful, noisy package.
With the current generation of PCs and gaming consoles, video games have become an increasingly complex proposition. Demands for entertaining, immersive experiences and the trend towards ‘sandbox’ games – that is to say, those that allow for total freedom of action – have produced a generation of games that have our minds working harder than ever.
In recent years, many popular games – from role-playing epics such as Skyrim to sports simulations like FIFA – have been designed to incorporate a trading component. With a bit of luck and an eye for numbers, canny players can quickly find themselves with increased resources and equipment. More than once I’ve come across students fiercely scribbling sums on a piece of paper, trying to find a mathematical shortcut to becoming a virtual millionaire.
Increases in hard drive space, graphics technology and processing power mean that today’s bestselling games include huge amounts of mixed media. In addition to filmic ‘cutscenes’ – video sequences which serve to move the narrative along – many games are now peppered with collectable texts and audio recordings that serve to add atmosphere and help flesh out the setting of the game. These are eagerly sought by gamers, and again, I’ve personally witnessed ‘reluctant readers’ relate detailed written story information they’ve gathered from a game – sometimes in excruciating detail.
Perhaps the most interesting contribution video games are making to students, at least from my perspective, is an increased interest in and understanding of historical periods. Already I have seen a massive surge in interest among young people in the First World War, as the release of the multiplayer first-person shooting game Battlefront 1 looms closer.
Elsewhere, the Assassin’s Creed games have cast a spotlight on a diverse selection of historical periods and settings, including the Crusades, Renaissance Italy and Victorian London, making millions for the series’ publisher, Ubisoft, in the process.
More than ever, video games have made it possible to visualise the past for students in an entertaining and engaging way that our history classes simply can’t match, whether we like it or not. So, if the RMIT researchers are correct in their findings, what does that mean for us in the classroom?
Here to stay
Before you start practising your ‘killstreaks‘ in Call of Duty, I’d suggest that the fastest way to kill off something attractive to young people is to bring it into the classroom. Furthermore, there is no way practical way of involving video games in our lessons unless you have a truly massive ICT department and a very understanding SLT. Besides, what would Ofsted think?
Instead, I call on teachers to lay off video games. Stop accusing them of turning our kids into red-eyes zombies or antisocial gorehounds.
It is imperative that we realise the gaming industry is here to stay, and that as a consequence, millions are having learning experiences they wouldn’t be having otherwise. There is nothing to be gained by treating gaming as a corrosive, damaging influence, and everything to be gained by embracing it as just another media form young people are immersed in.
This summer, hundreds of thousands of young people across the country are spending their holidays playing the latest gaming bestseller, No Man’s Sky [pictured above]. In a procedurally-generated virtual universe of 18 quintillion planets, they will be prospecting rare metals, translating alien languages and plotting vast leaps across the galaxy. All the while, they’ll be using a wide range of skills they would never dream they were consciously employing.
They are learning. Good on ’em, I say.
Mike Stuchbery has spent the last 13 years teaching English, history and geography across Australia, Germany and the UK, and now works in heritage education, where he is looking for his next big challenge. For more information, visit www.mikestuchbery.com or follow @MrMStuchbery
