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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

Video Games and Education A.J. Diaz 3/23/11 Alexander.diaz@qmail.queens.edu

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

President Barack Obama once said, All of us have a role to play in building an education system that is worthy of our children and ready to help us seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the 21st century (2010). Currently, the United States education is inadequate and needs alternative and better teaching methods to educate the people in the K-12 school system. Recent studies have shown that video games are more advanced and complex in how they teach students compared to the conventional methods such as lecturing and class discussions. In addition, video games have proven to be effective on multiple levels of education, starting from elementary school and going through workplace education. The United States needs to evolve its current education standard; it scores low in math, science, and reading compared to other first world countries (usatoday.com). The K-12 education system that is currently in place in the United States has to be altered by implementing educational based games into the curriculum to be more effective. Educational video games are the perfect solution to help solve the education crisis in America because they motivate students to do schoolwork, teach them skills beyond the subject content, and are a practical solution to help better our education system. GOOD INTRO Motivating the Youth One of biggest difficulties teachers in our school system have to face is lack of motivation from the students. Motivation to do school work is vital to any students success in school and for the rest of their lives. Neofotistos argues, Maintaining a stable learning environment, which keeps students motivated, is essential in establishing well-rounded and educated students (1995). Students lack motivation for multiple reasons such as not believing that their efforts will improve their performance and not perceiving the classroom climate as supportive (cmu.edu). A good solution to solving these problems is through implementing educational games in our education.

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

Students who do not believe that their efforts improve their performance do not see the value of practicing and training themselves to become better learners. A solution to lack of practice is to show them their progress in forms of levels and achievements. In the video game Halo 3, one of the multiplayer features is gaining experience points from doing something correctly for the next level (halowiki.net). The higher the level you are, the more visual achievements you and your created avatar are rewarded with. For example, in Halo 3, if you were level 5 you could only have access to basic appearance on you avatar. Once you attained level 25 you have access to more advanced appearances that you wear while playing other gamers. This idea of advancing your avatar through virtual ranks has motivated gamers to strive to better themselves in the game that they play. This idea could solve every motivational problem students have today. Educational based games could also make the classroom environment more relatable and supportive to the current and rising generations. Students who dislike specific subjects of study such as math, English, history will not want to engage with the material as eagerly as they would with subjects they like. However, video games are almost universally enjoyed by all youth in the United States. A study conducted to see how many kids ages 12-17 play video games found that 99% of boys and 94% of girls today play video games (Irvine, 2008). Combining gaming and education would turn school from a negative and boring experience into a positive and fun one. Regardless of subject, students will enjoy learning more through simulated and virtual experiences than through written assignments. Specific Skills Attained Through Games Games can do more than teach one particular subject such as math, English, or geography. They can train life long skills such as: problem solving, organization, simulations,

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

and critical thinking (cite?). These skills are expected and sought out by employers everywhere and one way to sharpen these skills is through gaming. In the free online game Sim City 4 and in The River City Project, students are immersed in an entire world of creative challenges and tasks that are not only educational, but fun and exciting as well. Compared to classroom education, these games educate similar skills, but more subtly. Games such as these should be implemented by teachers to effectively educate students. In the online game Sim City 4, players become city planners and managers who have multiple responsibilities to attend to. The responsibilities include building residential space, building industrial and commercial space, concern over availability of jobs, estimating land value, funding for everything, dealing with disasters, dealing with crime, politically handling different groups and organizations, and plenty more (simcity.ea.com). All of these different types of responsibilities relate to both particular academic subjects and skills. The theory behind this is that the study of gaming can teach students the 21st century life skills that employers seek; these include analytical thinking, team building, multitasking, and problem solving under duress (Ben Feller, Associated Press on Gaming, 2006). Finding out the budget to build your city makes you exercise mathematical skills by calculating the cost of all your materials. In addition, figuring out the budget means you: have prioritize what you need to have in your city, what to cut out, and why. This is directly related to problem solving and analytical thinking.

Great start, A.J. My edits above are really just tweaks. Keep moving forward with the same kind of thoughtful analysis and writing, and you will finish with a very strong paper. NCM

Practical

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

Simulation & Gaming Gaming simulation as an interactive-learning environment propels the principles of problem-oriented learning into action and enhances a shift of existing organizational cultures and structures and in this way contributes to the design-in-the-large processes of organizations.

Today, people, groups, and organizations are increasingly confronted with prob- lems and situations that show a high level of complexity. However, human abilities to deal with complex dynamic systems and processes while behaving in a sustainable way have not improved to the required extent. An essential advantage of the gaming- simulation approach lies in the integration of knowledge of various scientific disci- plines and the attempt to make complex-living contexts understandable. The use of gaming simulation in a company, for example, can serve as a tool to cre- ate a better understanding of the prevailing organizational culture, structure, and pro- cesses to assess the risks, chances, and necessities of organizational change. Gaming simulation is a method used to support people and organizations in dealing with the sustainable (re)construction of their reality. Gaming simulation imitates organiza- tional processes and changes them in an experiential and playful way. This aids organi- zations in their search for creative problem solution in real-life situations. One of the greatest struggles any teacher has is motivating their students to learn the material. Educational games should be implemented into the K-12 system because not only do they teach students the same curriculum as the standard method, but they do it in a fun and

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

exciting way. Lack of motivation can cause many students to fail (Need evidence of lack of motivation).

New York Times: Learning by Playing: Learning in the classroom Salen and Torres are at the forefront of a small but increasingly influential group of education specialists who believe that going to school can and should be more like playing a game, which is to say it could be made more participatory, more immersive and also, well, fun. They also spend significant time building their own games. Sometimes they design board games using cardboard and markers and ungodly amounts of tape. Most of the time, though, they invent games for the computer. Salens theory goes like this: building a game even the kind of simple game a sixth grader might build is equivalent to building a miniworld, a dynamic system governed by a set of rules, complete with challenges, obstacles and goals. At its best, game design can be an interdisciplinary exercise involving math, writing, art, computer programming, deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills. The traditional school structure strikes Salen as weird. You go to a math class, and that is the only place math is happening, and you are supposed to learn math just in that one space Theres been this assumption that school is the only place that learning is happening, that everything a kid is supposed to know is delivered between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m But the fact is that kids are doing a lot of interesting learning outside of school. We acknowledge that, and we are trying to bring that into their learning here. But not before it has been proved to work. Quest to Learn students who took federally mandated standardized tests last spring scored on average no better and no worse than other sixth graders in their district

Gaming Research for Technology Education A study conducted by University of Central Florida researchers identified an increase in mathematics achievement when using computer-assisted instruction. The findings from the study have assisted in formulating a design for future learning games, suggesting the integration of a simulation-based approach in gaming technology (Vogel, GreenwoodEricksen, Cannon-Bowers, & Bowers, 2006). Scientists consider the use of gaming in education as a way to captivate student interest

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Running Head: GAMING EDUCATION

and motivate them to practice self-learning outside of the classroom. disciplines are no exception. Games use stories, characters, and other environmental elements that produce a unique experience allowing them to later recall addressed subject matter. Bentley (2006) asserts whereas traditional blackboard learning sees the learner as a passive recipient of knowledge, gamebased learning allows students to become an active member of their education. games each day. The focus of the study was to determine the value of gaming as a learning tool, especially for STEM disciplines. The results show that most participants, 74 percent (190) agreed or strongly agreed that gaming is a valuable resource and learning tool for students. Thinking with games: exploring digital gaming imaginaries and values in higher education this article addresses the imaginaries that students draw to develop ideas and design games as they negotiate a transition from being players to designers.

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