Educational Potential

I want to focus on something explicitly talked about in the article by Glazer written for CQ Researcher and implicitly talked about in most of the other readings we have read to date. Our class discussions have also often returned to this central point as we try to place video games into context. I am referring to the educational potential of video games. A very prominent example of this educational potential is found in a study by Harvard researcher Dede. “In ‘River City,’ created by Dede’s team a Harvard, players try to figure out the cause of a mysterious epidemic in a 19th Century town. Researchers found that middle-schoolers using ‘River City’ improved their biological knowledge and science skills more than peer taught more traditionally.” This is an amazing concept. Other examples a throughout the readings cite video games as an educational tool for everything from improving social skills to helping pilots learn how to fly.

As I was doing research for my game presentation on the Madden football series, I came across a quote from a player that caught my attention. ''It's as close to NFL football as you can get from a video game. It really feels like you're in the game. It requires you to think, then react the same way as if you are in a (real) game.'' This is what got me thinking about the educational potential of video games. Can they be used to teach football also? I know my knowledge of how NFL plays are run has increased by playing Madden, but I never played football. What about for a football player? A practice might only last an hour, focusing on the physical fundamental skills required to play, but what if the coach assigned homework? They have two minute drills in madden, which force you to make quick, effective play calls which will improve your play calling IQ. You can play a game as an individual player, running the same routes as a wide receiver would run the entire game. If you know what it takes to get open in a video game based on the coverage, this could translate onto a real field. In a video game, it doesn’t matter if you run the wrong route and your quarterback is sacked. Most people would agree that we most effectively learn by doing, and at times, doing incorrectly. Video games provide trial and error learning with no “real” consequence to the error.

As discussed in class, video games are still seen as anti-social and to have negative connotations associated with them. If, as a society, we can accept the educational potential of video games and then begin to harness it, what are the possibilities? What else can they teach?