Maybe it’s due to poor hand-eye coordination, or maybe it’s because flashy noisy objects coming at me really fast raise my blood pressure in a way I simply don’t find fun, but I don’t like video games that involve rapid action. And I don’t find the point of SIMS-type games; after all, I’ve got actual demands on me to gather and manage resources and a “real” house to take care of.
Yet there
was a moment in time, circa 2005, when a particular online game was something I
bonded over with older son in a way that I’ve not experienced before or after.
The game was Drome Racing on the
LEGO Web site. It was a strategy game. Players built cars, which the program
ran through races. To be clear, it was not a driving game (a la Mario Kart). It
was, in effect, a car-racing artifice for testing a hypothesis. How would a
particular build perform versus various competitors in a selected racing
environment?
Despite my aversion to video games
(and my at-best neutral feelings toward cars/car racing), I thrived on the
strategic challenge of Drome Racing. It was much like my happy discovery, in learning
to play Pokemon with my son, of the hypothesis-testing aspect of deck-building.
So before the game was shut down, I
explored this computer world — with all of its rules and conditions — with my
son, where he picked up the language intuitively, and I found myself keeping
up, in spite of my self. It would not be an overstatement to say Drome Racing
marked an era in our lives.
Apparently,
I’m not the only one.
A
self-represented hooded ninja Minifig who goes by “edwins94” wrote on the LEGO
message boards:
“I logged
into my old Google Docs account … and there was the Maverick Constitution my
teammates and I had drafted together three years ago … exactly as it had been
left when the team disbanded two years ago.
I can't
describe how I felt … scrolling through the parts that I had typed myself. It
was the most truly awful feeling to feel all the great memories and know I
would never experience them again. I thought about the team HQs, the MHOZ, and
the good times we had together as teammates there. But I didn't just think
about what racing in DRC was like, I also thought about when I was 10 years old
and how different my life was back then. But DRC would never come back, the
MHOZ would never reopen, and I would never be 10 years old again.
I know the
game can never come back. It's old, buggy, LEGO sold the rights to it, and its
only memory is a bunch of random kids posting in the forums. But … I'm still
hoping that one day, maybe in 10 or 20 years or even more, LEGO will somehow
put it back. It would be more than just some racing game to me. It would mean so
much more.”
The impact
this game had on this child’s life is what we, as educators, are aiming for.
Isn't it funny how bonding with your children can happen during the playing of simple games. We still are a big Mariocart family, well that and Wii Sports, and even today the family can get excited...although, I do not win very much anymore, if at all.
ReplyDeleteI have even participated at the A2 Library with my kids in the Wii sports tournaments, even taking second place with my daughter, son took first, just barely, lol
Good to see I am not the only one who has had great experiences with his kids and video games...
What cool stories about gaming and bonding with your kids. I also really liked how you made a parallel to teaching. I agree that that kind of impact is what we are aiming for. The Drome Racing game sounds fun and educational. I think that format of trying different solutions (racing cars) for a problem fits with what Jane McGonigal said in her Ted Talk. It might have to change topics but the format sounds like it would be a good addition to her existing games.
ReplyDeleteMy six-year-old daughter has always loved games, and we play cards, and Guess Who, and Candyland, and Monopoly, and Operation, and hide-and-seek, and baseball... She loves puzzles, and to the extent that math homework is game-like because, like a game, it involves problem-solving--she likes math. Both Aviva and I like games and puzzles, so it's undoubtedly genetic. I got through cab driving by considering it a game. Dollars were points. It was strategic and logistic. I guess problem-solving lies at the heart of the connection between video games and school. But at this point in history I sense that the two "worlds" are still misaligned. Niguidula makes an perfectly apt comparison when he likens the electronic revolution to Gutenberg's 1436 invention of moveable type. And I hadn't really thought about the explosion of print media as the death-knell of scholasticism. I think the experience this summer at the Ed School has shown the power of new technology for education. I had already seen that Winter Semester here when my Latin professor used a smart board every class, sometimes Powerpoint, and always C-Tools. At the core, however, it's me and an old edition of Plato's Phaedrus, and an intellectual problem to solve. I have told students (who usually didn't feel this) that the *book* was a much superior invention compared to the computer. As McGonigal would say, it is "counterintuitive." But the book does not need electricity. Or broadband. Or the broadband bill to be paid with your blood sweat and tears at the very last minute. Or the correct URL. Or finding the right folder. Or uploading in the correct file format. Or a $1,400 Mac. Or an extension cord. The book requires *absolutely nothing.* I don't need to hunt for the scroll bar because it's different on a PC: I just turn the page. Nothing comes between me and the written word. Nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe common thread in most of our posting this week is that gaming reaches kids. Not only that, gaming provides unique opportunities for building connections, staying tech-savvy in a fun and stress-free manner, and most importantly - providing instruction. In the game world, kids are inspired by intrinsic motivation. They learn so much, without even knowing that they are learning. They spend almost as much time learning from games as they do in school. That is huge and as forward-thinking educators, we can't afford to sleep on the competition. We can't beat the influence of games, so we'd do best to join in.
ReplyDeleteHowever...
In my opinion there is an aspect of higher-order thinking that is difficult to obtain from gaming. Children aren't thinking about thinking. As Jeff or Christine mentioned in class Friday, gaming is failure-based learning and the ability to fail and start again (without bad grades, or judgements) does not immediately inspire reflection on "What did I do wrong? or What was I thinking?" Life does not behave in this manner. Most times, we don't get a do-over. What we get is stuck with the consequences of poor decisions, and we generally have to stop and reflect. Gaming doesn't provide many opportunities for metacognition.
There are a few more holes in the fabric of gaming for instruction but I won't belabor the point. It seems we all agree that there are advantages to using video games in education but we can never entrust this responsibility solely to an electronic environment. Careful planning with an eye towards long-term effects on students is required. The value of the hand-written, spoken, and printed word must not be allowed to diminish, nor can we afford to devalue deep, reflexive thinking. Technology has a place in instruction, but it cannot be allowed to replace instruction.
John, Congrats on the Mario wins!
ReplyDeleteThat is one that, while I don't really enjoy for any intellectual challenge, I do play with the kids as a way to bond with them.
The AADL seems to be pretty up on gaming for kids. I bet some of the folks who run that would have something to say about games and learning.
T.R., I agree. I think McGonigal is promoting games that have that kind of strategic problem-solving. But I'm not sure if I believe bringing the games in the classroom is really the way to go. As a parent, I think a lot of it comes down to trying to steer your kid's screen time toward "better" games. And when I think about games and the classroom, I tend to think less about how to make them a part of school and more about figuring out if there are worthwhile brain activities going on, and how to do other activities that rely on those same kinds of thinking.
ReplyDeletePreston, I am a board game lover. I admire your patience for Candyland. I couldn't do it: When my oldest was little, I taught him to play Backgammon, putting numbers on the board. I like me a game that makes me think. Settlers of Catan is big at our house. We've also begun playing Ticket to Ride. And a "cooperative" game, Forbidden Island. And, while I steer away from math, I love Blokkus.
ReplyDeleteI know there must be video games out there that challenge player's mental faculties in the ways these games do. Although so far, I've only really encountered electronic versions of these games, which, frankly doesn't add much and detracts quite a bit in terms of sitting around the table together.
When it comes to games, I think I am of the same mind as you are about books.
Simply Serious, I agree with you that I am sometimes troubled by the idea that in the real wold we don't get do-overs. To take it to the extreme, I have wondered if the current culture of "dying" and coming back to life in games has any impact on teen suicide. I'd like games to use different terminology.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm not sure I agree that kids failing and (immediately) getting to start again doesn't lead to reflective thinking (what did I go wrong, etc.). I imagine kids are actually do quite a bit of this kind of thinking. But maybe what you are saying is that video games are so fast-paced that they don't stop and realize what they are thinking about. What might be worthwhile would be to create those stops and get them to talk and write about these reflections!
Simply Serious said: "Technology has a place in instruction, but it cannot be allowed to replace instruction."
ReplyDeleteI agree!!
Are any of you familiar with Minecraft? It has taken over our family. The four kids are constantly jockeying for the driver’s seat at the mouse. “IcallMinecraftfirst!!!” has replaced the social norm of “Hello” as they pour through the front door.
ReplyDeleteIf I don’t unlock the family computer before going to bed Friday nights, I’ll be awakened before dawn with a keyboard in my face and cries for the password. That is, if my fiancé hasn’t already beaten the kids to the computer.
As a parent, one-half hour of screen time per day doesn’t seem unreasonable, except that, in our blended family, if all four get their own half hour, it takes two hours out of our precious every-other weekends together!
So said fiancé created a server. I was really impressed, and whether it is or isn’t that difficult to set up, he’s willing to milk it.
Now, with work and school laptops drafted for the cause, all four kids can play at once. The fiancé is, sadly, left out.
Now I’m using to my Blog to have fun with writing …
The point I should get to is that it actually seems there is a lot of potential in Minecraft. It’s not the kind of strategy/problem-solving kind of game I like (why I’m the only one in my family who hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid!). But it’s a completely creative game. You “mine” for resources and then you “craft” (or build) with them.
Dear fiancé says Minecraft is a "sand box" game, meaning it's creative — like playing in a sand box.
Check out this YouTube video of a replica of the White House created in Minecraft:
http://youtu.be/_qOsOk6RRX0
The Internet is littered with these kinds of videos and images. You can even download blueprints.
Also, there is a Minecraft Wiki. I’ve not looked at it, but I know the kids have. Part of what I like about Minecraft is how often my older son has chosen to use his screen time READING various Web sites about the video game.
At the end of day, though, I guess I still this as being more about choosing better games at home than it is about using them in the classroom — at least a Language Arts classroom. I mean, I could see maybe using Minecraft to help kids work with spatial relationships/geometry. And I’ve even talked to my kids about how they could represent a narrative of a story in Minecraft. But, let’s day they did. Would their understanding of that narrative be any stronger?