Digital Video Games as learning tools

“Games are effective not because what they are but because of what they embody and what learners are doing as they play a game”

 Richard Van Eck

Nowadays more and more people use digital games for different purposes. They are employing “cutting edge technology”. We don’t live in industrial economy anymore, we live in technology economy thus we have to think about using this technology in educational settings.

In general there are three factors which have resulted in broad public interest and attention in games as learning and teaching tools. They are as follows:

v  Ongoing research in Digital Video Games (DGBL) field

v  “Net Generation” or “Digital Natives” mismatched with the traditional instructions because it required multiple streams of information, immediate interactions with content: the features that engaged well with DGBL

v  Increased popularity in games

Besides claiming about the increasing popularity of games we should also mention that not all games are effective and have place in learning/teaching settings. Here the main issue is the attempts to integrate games into the learning process to broaden out their learning/teaching potential. According to Van Eck easy games can’t be engaging whereas well designed games require “input from the learner and provide feedback”. 

Let’s consider that we have designed an educative game but how we can attract kids play this game. So here comes the notion that they should be entertained and the connection between learning and fun will attract kids play the game. 
    In general, DGBL literature shows, educators have adopted three main approaches for integrating games into the learning process:

 1. have students build games from scratch

     2.have educators and/or developers build educational games from scratch to teach students

            3.integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games into the classroom (which maximizes the quality of games)

There are many COTS games which can be use in the classroom such as Civilization, The Age of Mythology and others. However, before using a particular game in the classroom setting various factors should be taken into consideration. A balance has to be achieved between the needs of the curriculum and the structure of the game to elude having “negative” outcomes from the teaching.

The new digital technologies made “cognitive changes” which led our younger generation to a variety of new needs and preferences in the area of learning. Due to these change the notion of generation gap comes to my mind because we play, learn and communicate in a way which is different from the way our parents did. Now kids develop hypertext minds. Their brains are physiologically different (Moore, n.d). According to Moore “computer skills are a tool for adults, but for teenagers using computers has become a second language”. Keeping this in mind I would like to present the main cognitive changes that Prensky (2000) observed in the Games Generation.

 v  Twitch speed vs. conventional speed

 v   Parallel processing vs. linear processing

 v  Graphics first  vs. text first

 v   Random access vs. step-by-step

 v   Connected vs. standalone

 v  Active vs. passive

 v   Play vs. work

 v   Payoff vs. patience

 v   Fantasy vs. reality

 v   Technology-as-friend vs. technology-as-foe

Each of them is very challenging in the fields of education, business and many others. Due to all these “cognitive differences” the learning styles and abilities have been changed which bring the need for new approaches to learning for the Games Generation.

    Though multiple studies have found that games promote learning and reduce instructional time across multiple disciplines we should be cautious while choosing a game for our students.  The benefit of DGBL  is undeniable  but let not to forget that not all games are good for educational purposes. Thus if we want to use DGBL in the language and other classrooms, the teachers and faculty members must be trained to analyze, to design, to develop, to implement and to evaluate DGBL.