For this blog, I will investigate the use of technology in educational settings with the focus on digital gamification and game-based learning. According to Sun (2015), American youth invest in 10,000 hours of gaming before they turn 21; therefore, it is unwise to ignore games as an educational resource and modify it to meet our requirements and standards.
Technology: Regresses or enhances learning?
For years, educators have differed in their opinions about the effectiveness of using technology in educational establishments. DeGroot (2015) cited Bauerlein (2009) who thought that today’s teens are being “dumbed” and “stupefied” by the available technologies because they are in constant contact with each other, to the exclusion of wise adults and the outside world. On the other spectrum, other researchers, such as Al Zein & Bou Diab (2015), advocate the advantages of using game-assessments, since they lower the anxiety level in students and as a result, their performance enhances. They encourage teachers to use games in assessments as they provide authentic, real-life assessments of knowledge and skills.
The debate still goes on unresolved so far. Hopefully, as more games are introduced in schools, colleges, and universities, research will be able to come to a definite answer as to whether technology, in general, and games, in particular, are worth investing in or not.
A glimpse at the history of video/digital games:
Video games, according to the strong: National Museum of Play timeline, started in the 1940’s when Edward U. Condon created Nim, a game in which tens of thousands of players tried to win by not choosing the last matchstick. The 1950’s saw the birth of many computer games, such as chess, tic-tac-toe, blackjack, Hutspiel (a U. S. military war-game), checkers, a tennis game, and a Mouse in the Maze.
The 1960’s witnessed the inception of the first computer-based video game, Spacewar!, which distributed to computers nationwide. In 1964, John Kemeny created a time-share computer to facilitate the BASIC programing language, and as a result, countless games were created, such as the first football game. Ralph Baer, in 1967, created the “Brown Box” that allowed players to use television sets to play video games, such as Odyssey (1968) which was the first home video game system. “Mathematical Games”, for example Life, flourished in the 1970’s in addition to other legendary games the likes of Pong, Maze Wars, and Adventure were created.
In 1977, Atari introduced Atari 2600, which included a joystick, colorful games which came in interchangeable cartridges, and switches to choose games and difficulty levels. This gaming console was adopted my millions of players.
In 1980, Pac-Man, the best-selling arcade game of all time, became the first game to be used with home consoles. Other iconic games such as Mario, Tron, Tetris, and Legend of Zelda were all created in the 80’s. In 1985, Nintendo Entertainment System hit the market. In 1989, Nintendo’s Game Boy made gaming mobile. In 1986, the first educational computer CD-ROM, Reader Rabbit, was introduced but the success of the Internet, in 1990’s, caused it to fail. New games were introduced to more people as game consoles spread across the world. In 2002, the “Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars launched the Serious Games Initiative to encourage the development of games that address policy and management issues.” 2008 was the year in which World of Warcraft introduced virtual universes. In 2011, Skylander: Spyro’s Adventure became the first augmented-reality game.
A Tetrad of Digital Gamification and Game-Based Learning:
Enhances:
The initial games that were adopted in the classroom, such as Reader Rabbit, enhanced the motivation and engagement of the players, which are inherent characteristics of games. They also enhanced the skills they were focusing on, i.e. reading or math skills, as was suggested by this article and this article. Digital gamification and game-based learning still follow the same principles for enhancing the educational process.
Obsoletes/Replaces:
Since computers were beginning to evolve into smaller and more personal technologies and since game consoles were becoming more common in households and different establishments, and until this day, digital games and gamification devices are, gradually, replacing the traditional teaching and learning paradigms. Schito &al. (2015) proposed the relinquishing of the traditional schools of thoughts, i.e. Behaviorist, Cognitive, Behaviorist-Cognitive, and Constructivist, to create a new hybrid model where components of all four are used to create the underlying foundations of digital gamification and game-based learning experiences.
Retrieves/Rekindles:
Since the establishment of schools, societies have been trying to initiate the young to fulfill certain roles that will help those societies flourish. Different schools of thoughts studied how to best teach and learn in school settings. Today is no different. We are still trying to see what works best to help our children be well prepared for the global economic competition. Digital gamification and game-based learning is one of the most recent attempts at that.
Reverses:
With the advancement of smaller and more powerful digital devices, the conventional digital gamification and game-based learning might change forever. Games might be played using location-based games, where gamers have to move to designated locations to accomplish a task; virtual gaming, where students are immersed in virtual worlds by using Google Glass, for example, as this Forbes article presents; Augmented Reality gaming experiences; and holographic gaming, like this demonstration shows.
Conclusion:
Although there is, still, no conclusive evidence that digital gamification and game-based learning do enhance the learning processes of children, the technological advancements in the gaming industry are still forging ahead by producing new products that, they hope, will motivate and engage the children to become responsible and more involved in their studies, and thus help them stay in school.
References:
Bauerlein, M. (2009). The Dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans And Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30). New York: Penguin Group.
De Groot, A. (2015). Teachers as World-Makers in the Digital Age (Master's Thesis). Dort College.
El Zein, A., & Bou Diab, L. (2015). The Impact of Game Assessment on Enhancing Student's Performance. International Journal Of Economic Behavior And Organization, 4(3). Retrieved from http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/edu
Museumofplay.org,. (2015). Video Game History Timeline | The Strong. Retrieved 22 June 2015, from http://www.museumofplay.org/icheg-game-history/timeline/
Roberts-Woychesin, J. (2015). Understanding 3-D Spaces Through Game-Based Learning: A Case Study of Knowledge Acquisition Through Problem-Based Learning in Minecraft. (Doctor of Philosophy). University of North Texas.
Schito, J., Sailer, C., & Kiefer, P. (2015). Bridging the gap between location-based games and teaching. In 18th AGILE Conference. Lissabon: ResearchGate. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/275950212_Bridging_the_gap_between_location-based_games_and_teaching
Sun, R. (2015). How Digital Games Become Educational. Tle-online.com. Retrieved 22 June 2015, from http://tle-online.com/news/how-digital-games-become-educational/17/06
Thompson, C. (2014). How Videogames Like Minecraft Actually Help Kids Learn to Read | WIRED. WIRED. Retrieved 21 June 2015, from http://www.wired.com/2014/10/video-game-literacy/
All comments are highly appreciated. Thank you for reading my post.