Develop video games with an educational purpose
Ben Williamson writes about “Serious Games”:
“Serious Games” is a term used to describe computer and videogames developed for a purpose other than pure entertainment, for example, in the military, health, social policy and education. The Apply Serious Games event (10 July 2008) was intended to explore the state of the debate in this area, as well as to showcase some recent developments….
and concludes:
The Serious Games field is divided between organisations seeking to develop social tools which expand on the notion of what playing games is all about, and the potential business opportunities which might be made available for the games industry in the educational environment. This means that the future of the debate in this area will need to address questions about the role of corporations, the role of small and self-avowedly “responsible” organisations, and the role of politics in educational change. “Corporate” is almost a pejorative term in educational debates (so is “policy”); yet educational change may not come about without the financial interest of the private sector. Lord Puttnam suggested that public-private partnership might be the only business model. For the serious games subsector of the games indsutry, that means working alongside the multinationals and policymakers at the same time. That’s what makes “The Education Game” the most serious of all. Let’s hope it’s the taking part and not the winning that really matters.
On a similar vein, Samuel Axon, in “Games and Virtual Worlds teach better than teachers” he writes
An academic named James Gee told lecture attendees at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference in Wisconsin that game and virtual world developers have a better handle on how to foster “passionate communities for learning” than most teachers do. He used World of Warcraft as an example of excellent game design that creates communities that share information and solve problems together.
He also referenced Second Life, telling the story of a girl who started using Photoshop to make clothes for her Sims in The Sims. She went on to start a business selling her fashions in Linden Labs’ virtual economy. “Education isn’t about telling people stuff,” said Gee. “It’s about giving them tools that enable them to see the world in a new and useful way.” Gee argued that game developers know how to do that, and that educators should learn from their example.
Gamasutra has some more quotes and analysis, but the sum of it all is that Gee believes that since delivering raw information to students’ brains isn’t going to work in a rapidly changing, postmodern world, they should be trained to come up with their own unique ideas in response to all the data that makes up the complex system that is our society. So, think emergent gameplay, but real!
Given how much the youth play games, these articles are certainly worthy of our consideration.
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