Video Gaming – Post 3

General Thoughts on Video Gaming:

Video Games are a powerful medium with potential implications for learning. As it is generally known that learning is at its best by doing than by listening alone, video games set a platform for students to learn by doing. Students learn through failure and develop identities as expert problem solvers in educational games. From the Recycle Roundup Game, I have learnt a lot on how I can use it in teaching my Geography students about Waste Management, Recycling and Environmental Issues. My students will not only listen to my lectures, but will actually practice what they learn theoretically in class. I see Video Games as an important and crucial tool for complementing teaching and learning to students.

Squire, K. (2006) has beautiful ideas about Video Games, which I think are important to put into consideration: First, Educators (especially curriculum designers) ought to pay closer attention to video games because they offer designed experiences, in which participants learn through a grammar of doing and being. Players develop new identities both through game play and through the gaming communities in which these identities are enacted.
Secondly, Theoretically, games are interesting in that they are sites of intrinsically motivated learning. They use challenge, curiosity, control, and fantasy. They also provide opportunities for social interaction, competition, and collaborative play to engage players.
Lastly, Games embody values such as collaborative learning, learning through failure and personalized learning. These ideas are of vital importance to consider when using video games to enhance learning.

Squire insists that, a core characteristic of games is that they are organized around doing. They are uniquely organized for a functional epistemology, where one learns through doing, through performance. Learning is by doing and this is at its best in Educational Video Games.