Video games in education

Computer and video games are a maturing medium and industry and have caught the attention of scholars across a variety of disciplines. By and large, computer and video games have been ignored by educators. When educators have discussed games, they have focused on the social consequences of game play, ignoring important educational potentials of gaming. This paper examines the history of games in educational research, and argues that the cognitive potential of games have been largely ignored by educators. Contemporary developments in gaming, particularly interactive stories, digital authoring tools, and collaborative worlds, suggest powerful new opportunities for educational media. VIDEO GAMES IN AMERICAN CULTURE Now just over thirty years old, video games have quickly become one of the most pervasive, profitable, and influential forms of entertainment in the United States and across the world. In 2001, computer and console game software and hardware exceeded $6.35 billion in the United States, and an estimated $19 billion worldwide (IDSA 2002). To contextualize these figures, in October 23, 2001, the Sony PlayStation system debuted in the US, netting well over $150 million in twenty-four hours, over six times the opening day revenues of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which netted $25 million. Twenty-five million Americans or, one out of every four households, owns a Sony Playstation (Sony Corporate website 2000). Not only are video games a powerful force not only in the entertainment and economic sector, but in the American cultural landscape, as well. 1 There may be distinctions between the technical features and cultural significance of computer and video games that are worth exploring when discussing games in education, but for the purposes of this paper, they will both be treated as “video games” to simplify matters. Nintendo’s Pokemon, which, like Pac-Man and The Mario Brothers, before it, has evolved from a video game into a cultural phenomena. In the past few years, Pokemon has spun off a television show, a full feature film, a line of toys, and a series of trading cards, making these little creatures giants in youth culture. Given the pervasive influence of video games on American culture, many educators have taken an interest in what the effects these games have on players, and how some of the motivating aspects of video games might be harnessed to facilitate learning. Other educators fear that video games might foster violence, aggression, negative imagery of women, or social isolation (Provenzo 1991). Other educators see video games as powerfully motivating digital environments and study video games in order to determine how motivational components of popular video games might be integrated into instructional design (Bowman 1982; Bracey 1992; Driskell & Dwyer 1984). Conducted during the age of Nintendo, these studies are few in number and somewhat outdated, given recent advancements in game theory and game design. These studies also tend to focus on deriving principles from traditional action (or “twitch”) games, missing important design knowledge embodied in adventure, sports, strategy, puzzle, or role-playing games (RPGs), as well as hybrid games which combine multiple genres (Appleman & Goldsworthy 1999; Saltzman 1999). Likewise, they fail to consider the social contexts of gaming and more recent developments in gaming, such as the Internet. In this paper, I argue that video games are such a popular and influential medium for a combination of many factors. Primarily, however, video games elicit powerful emotional reactions in their players, such as fear, power, aggression, wonder, or joy. Video game designers create these emotions by a balancing a number of game components, such as character traits, game rewards, obstacles, game narrative, competition with other humans, and opportunities for collaboration with other players. Understanding the dynamics behind these design considerations might be useful for instructional technologists who design interactive digital learning environments. Further, video game playing occurs in rich socio-cultural contexts, bringing friends and family together, serving as an outlet for adolescents, and providing the “raw material” for youth culture. Finally, video game research reveals many patterns in how humans interact with technology that become increasingly important to instructional technologists as they become designers of digital environments. Through studying video games, instructional technologists can better understand the impact of technology on individuals and communities, how to support digital environments by situating them in rich social contexts. LEARNERS AS “PAC-MAN” PLAYERS: USING VIDEO GAMES TO UNDERSTAND ENGAGEMENT Since the widespread popularity of PacMan in the early 1980s, some educators have wondered if “the magic of ‘Pac-Man‘cannot be bottled and unleashed in the classroom to enhance student involvement, enjoyment, and commitment” (Bowman 1982, p. 14). A few educators have undertaken this project, defining elements of game design that might be used to make learning environments more engaging (Bowman 1982; Bracey 1992; Driskell & Dwyer 1984; Malone 1981). Through a series of observations, surveys, and interviews, Malone (1981) generated three main elements that “Make video games fun”: Challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. Malone uses these concepts to outline several guidelines for creating enjoyable education programs. Malone (1981) argues that educational programs should have: • clear goals that students find meaningful, • multiple goal structures and scoring to give students feedback on their progress, • multiple difficulty levels to adjust the game difficulty to learner skill, • random elements of surprise, • an emotionally appealing fantasy and metaphor that is related to game skills. In a case study of Super Mario Brothers 2, Provenzo (1991) finds this framework very powerful in explaining why Super Mario Brothers 2 has become one of the most successful video games of all time. Bowman’s checklist provides educators an excellent starting point for understanding game design and analyzing educational games, but at best, it only suggests an underlying theoretical model of why