Digital Games

There is the impression that computer games have always been attributed at best an insignificant, and at worst a negative role in children’s learning life. It seems that the only function of games is to create fun or relaxing atmosphere. However, studying all today’s material for homework Ts can discover digital games as a powerful educational tool in the 21^st century. The main perspective in all these materials was to advocate the media literacy in education.

Thus, I totally support the argument in the video material “No Gamer Left Behind” that putting people in the environment where they can experience what they need to learn, where they can make mistakes, take risks, and try new things, can bring better learning than just sitting in the classroom and throwing info at them. These simulated environments can help beginners become experts. Moreover, when Ss become not just consumers, but producers of simulation technologies, they are able to express individualization and creative skills. Similarly, these skills of innovation, creativity, problem solution, collaboration, production are advocated in the material titled “Grading with Games”, as they are necessary to survive in the developed world. I’d like to quote the speaker’s idea that we need to be able to work in a group where the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group. One important thing for me was that games do not separate learning from assessment, which is really a painful part of learning for Ss. The frequent feedback given by games motivates the learner, when he fails, to continue on to success. The same idea is stated be Sasha Barab who says that failure is motivating and not smth to be avoided. It’s true that we limit our Ss in the classroom to be vessels to be filled with information. But games can allow them a vast opportunity of trying on various roles, which helps them see themselves as people who could possibly have that future.

Obviously, we cannot do this in the real world for a 10-year-old boy, but in a game. This is the reason that Sasha Barab and Marc Prencky voice their concern about “powering down” our Ss at schools. We, Ts, need to win this competition be creating a space where children can be passionate about learning.

We need to understand the reason behind the increased interest in games. Thus, the reason is the combined weight of 3 factors, which is discussed in the article Digital- Based Learning by Richard Van Eck. The first factor is the ongoing research conducted by DGBL proponents. The second involves today’s “Net Generation” or “digital natives” who have become disengaged with traditional instruction. And the third factor is the increased popularity of games. I believe that time brings cognitive changes as well which dictate fundamental shifts, in this case, in education. Marc Prensky in his book Digital Game-Based Learning has identified the 10 main cognitive changes in the Games Generation. There are twitch speed vs. conventional speed, parallel processing vs. linear processing, graphics first vs. text first, random access vs. step-by-step, connected vs. standalone, active vs. passive, play vs. work, payoff vs. patience, fantasy vs. reality, technology- as- friend vs. technology- as- foe.

Along with all these incentives for the use of digital games, there is an issue raised by Harvard Health Publications where some researchers claim that exposure to violent media can contribute to real-life violent behavior, while others argue the opposite. Although there is no foolproof evidence that any particular behavior could produce the profile of a likely “shooter”, parents should protect their children from the hazardous effects of games by providing limits and guidance as necessary.

The game that I chose to play was Darfur is Dying. I immediately started playing the game without reading the instructions. I composed this experience to the argument stated in grading With Games that scientists have always learned the language of science by doing science. I will describe my experience by the principle of situated cognition explained by Richard van Eck in the article Digital Game-Based Learning. I practiced multitasking skills, inductive reasoning, frequent and quick interactions with content and visual literacy skills. This interaction required a constant cycle of hypothesis formulation, testing, and revision. And this happened with immediate feedback. From the language learning point of view, it practiced active reading skills, and from the moral perspective, it taught perseverance, sensitivity, and humanism.

I would sum up all my exploration described above in the consideration that games thrive as teaching tools when they create a continuous cycle of disequilibrium and resolution while also allowing the player to be successful, and the implementation of DGBL requires careful analysis and matching of the content, strengths, and weaknesses of the game to be studied.