Final Adjustments
Over the course of the projects final two weeks I undertook a series of drastic changes to my essay. I had a number of problems with what I was actually writing about. First I was talking about how only video games could replace teaching, and then replaced that with John Hunter's Study with the World Peace Game. I was going to compare his study to how current educational games teach children. I wasn't convinced that I could pull off 2000 words with a subject lacking in key fiber.
Instead I decided to compare two theories to how a child's mind grows and develops, and compare the theories to John Hunters study. After a grueling typing session I finished the essay, with an ample amount of research, quotations and findings that I was very happy with to submit.
Here is my finished essay:
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BA 6 Contextual studies: Advanced Game
Studies and Research
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Education
in Games: Can Games be an Effective, Sustainable Educational Tool?
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gadyear2.blogspot.co.uk
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Liam Gallagher-Vaes
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5/9/2013
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Word Count: 2,110
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[Type the abstract of the
document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of
the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is
typically a short summary of the contents of the document.]
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Digital games come in a variety of genres. They are created to
entertain, educate and influence in similar ways to a film or television
program, which contain influential characters, immersive storylines and
stunning special effects. Games have become such a successful form of
storytelling; however the boundaries have not been pushed as far as they can
go. The use of games for education has always been influential in the modern
classroom, although they have not reached their full potential in terms of
successful teaching. If games companies studied the use of games as a learning
tool, could games be the future in education? I will be discussing how games
have the potential to become an effective educational tool and how they can
create a new learning environment for people of all ages. I will carry out my study from a theoretical
point of view, using Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky’s theories in child
psychology, and link their theories to John Hunter’s practical classroom study
of ‘The World Peace Game’.
Educational games
come in two main formats. Games that teaches the player directly, challenging
them with different puzzles, covering school subjects such as Maths and
English. Or there are edutainment games, which teach the player without them
even knowing through procedural rhetoric. ‘Edutainment is a broad term which covers
the combination of educational and entertainment use on a variety of media
platforms including computer games’ (Buckingham & Scanlon, 2002;
Konzack, 2003) Games such as ‘Portal’ (PC and consoles 2008), are a prime example as they
inadvertently teach the player about Maths and Physics. Even adventure games,
like ‘Uncharted’ (PS3, 2007), and ‘Tomb Raider’ (Xbox and PS3, 2013) teaches
the player using problem solving and puzzles to engage the players mind. Games that use procedural rhetoric use
problem solving puzzles to get bonuses in the game or travel from A to B. The
idea is to get the player thinking about how they can progress, with the puzzle
ahead of them, and solving it with only the tools at their disposal. In 1986, a
video games developer called Johnny Durango released the first educational
game called ‘Jumpstart’. The game
recreated a young children’s classroom, where the player could explore the
classroom by clicking on different objects in the room, activating all sorts of
activities, like counting games, learning the alphabet and constructing
sentences.
The target of educational games is to create
activities that are not tedious, repetitive and include exciting features that
appeal to their audience. ‘Jumpstart’ was
able to make their school activities appeal strongly to their young audience.
Learning the alphabet was conducted through playing a catchy melody, enticing
the child to remember the melody and recite it through song. The counting
exercise was another engaging activity for children. On the screen was a grid,
and each square was filled with a selected number of different things, ranging
from animals, toys and food. The AI (artificial intelligence) teacher would say
a number, and it was the child’s goal to find the square with the spoken
matching number of items in. The child would then be praised for getting it
right. Through primary research, in playing this game, I found that nearly all
of the activities educated their players through images, allowing the player to
learn words by matching them with the picture on the screen (see You Tube
gameplay video). This was especially effective in the sentence building
exercise. The classrooms blackboard had a variety of images, which matched the
adjective in the sentence. The teacher spoke out the sentence, and the child
had to select the image that met the description from the teacher and build the
sentence.
To ensure the activities were not tedious or
repetitive, the matter of the activity stayed the same, but the numbers or
sentences in the activities mentioned were always different. Looking closely at reviews from parents and
teachers the overall feedback was positive, (Amazon, 2013).
John Hunter, a fourth grade teacher in
America came up with a new practical classroom study. He revealed it to the
public in a TED talk in 2011 (refer
You Tube link) for children to engage with in the classroom. It was called the ‘World Peace Game’. The original design was made in 1987, and
consisted of a board, mapping a variety of different countries/territories,
each with their own economic, natural or military advantages. The aim of the
game was to give the children the opportunity to engage and negotiate with each
other to fix underlining problems with our society that were taking place. ‘I
have learnt to cede control of the classroom to the students over time’ (Hunter,
2011).
He believes that ‘Their collective wisdom is much
greater than mine, and I admit it to them openly’ (Hunter, 2011). The
modern version of the game consists of many levels; underwater, land, air and
space. Each new level includes crises that the children are responsible to fix.
Hunter’s study was successful in concluding
that even children of a young age can problem solve and work together through
the use of play. The use of play in the classroom is aimed at being engaging
and immersive for the children, focusing their attention, making learning fun
and enjoyable for the child.
In relation to digital games, as they are an
individual activity they can be seen as less successful in a learning
environment. However, with development by games companies, they could design a
local multiplayer game that all children could engage with as a productive
team.
Going back to ‘Jumpstart’, the ‘World Peace
Game’ is also set in the classroom. Hunter wanted to prove that he could
come up with an engaging, interactive activity that created procedural rhetoric
that the children could partake in. The key areas of procedural rhetoric in
this game were politics, strategy and communication skills.
To better
understand how children can learn from digital games, we first must understand
how the mind of a child works, through real life experiences and social
interaction. There are a number of different theories that state that children
grow and develop their skills through stages of mental immersion to their
surroundings. (Piaget). Another theory is that children are dependant on their
parents and others to help them learn and develop new skills (Vygotsky).
Jean Piaget (1986-1980) ‘was the first
psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development’ (Mcleod, 2009). Piaget believed that there were ‘important
differences between the thinking of adults and children’ (Mcleod, 2009). To
further expand on his theory, he structured the stages of a child’s mental
development into four key areas, from birth to ages of eleven and above.
Piaget’s first theoretical stage of development is the ‘Sensori-motor’ (birth –
2 years), which is the child recognising that they are not the only life in the
universe and notices that things continue to exist even when they are not
about. The second stage is the ‘Pre-operational’ (2 – 7 years) is when a key
change happens in a child’s development, as they are learning to use words, and
learn to represent objects, naming or describing them through images and words.
Also, objects that are of one particular colour or shape. They would group them
together and classify them as one single feature. Stage three is the ‘Concrete
Operational (7 – 11 years), and is all about the child being able to clearly
uphold a conversation with someone. This allows them to logically be able to
think about objects and events, and to further narrow down the ordering or arrangement
of objects in accordance to dimensions, and any physical imagery the object may
with hold. The fourth and final stage in Piaget’s stages of a child’s
development is ‘Formal operational’ (11 years and up). At this stage the child
is able to think outside the box, meaning they become more hypothetical about
the future and ideological problems.
‘If Piaget was right about the stage concept, then young
children should not show any signs of cognitive abilities that are not
appropriate for their stage of development’ (Segall, 1990). Piget’s theory is floored, as one cannot
enslave a child’s mind into a linear state of mental development in exact
accordance to his theory. He has been able to create a world in which every
child’s mind grows and develops in the same way, meaning that if Piaget’s
theory is true, then every child would be as smart as the next. Although
Piaget’s theory is very linear it ‘does correctly identify the order of
passage through the milestones of cognitive development’ (Segall,
1990).
Vygotsky was a
Russian psychologist (1896-1934). He believed
that a child’s mind was strongly affected by the influence of other people. He
referred to such people as ‘MKO’s’, which
means ‘more knowledgeable other’. ‘MKO’s can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches,
experts/professionals – but also things you might not first expect, such as
children, friends…’ (S.
James, 2010). To support his theory of children learning through secondary
sources (MKO’s) he describes something know as ‘zone of proximal development’
(ZPD). Vygotsky divided this theory into two sections of attainment, with the
ZPD being in between the two. Level one is known as the ‘present level of
development’, meaning that the child has the ability to learn, without the help
of others by interacting with objects and their surroundings. Level two is the
‘potential level of development’, which is the possibility of the child
learning from others, or ‘teachers’.
Going back to Vygotsky’s theory regarding MKO’s, he concludes
that in order for a child to gain sustainable knowledge in their upbringing,
earning teaching through independence is just as important as being taught by a
secondary source (MKO). If a child can be dependant upon himself or herself,
they wouldn’t have the practical social skills to engage with others. But then
on the other hand, if a child were fully dependant on learning from others,
they wouldn’t be able to handle life on their own in their future, especially
when encountering personal decision-making.
‘Another
important feature of this theory is scaffolding’ (S. James, 2010). The ‘scaffolding’ is how the parent raises the child to
learn for themselves and from others. ‘When an adult
provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give
depending on their progress. For example, a child learning to walk might at
first have both their hands held and pulled upwards’. (S. James, 2010). It is important for the parent to
understand how much information they need to give their child, before letting
them learn for themselves.
In 1975, ‘Wood and Middleton’ conducted a study towards a
group of four years olds. The aim of the study was for the group of children to
assemble a 3D model, consisting of blocks and pegs. The model was too complex
for the four year olds to handle independently, so the children’s mothers were
included in the study to assist. ‘Wood and Middleton’ monitored how the mothers
interacted with their children, assisting them and giving them a sense of
independency in trying to learn how to build the model on their own. The type’s of support the parents
provided towards their children was: ‘General encouragement e.g.
‘now you have a go.’ Specific instructions e.g. ‘get four big blocks.’ Direct
demonstration e.g. showing the child how to place one block on another’. (Mcleod,
2010). Strategizing the combination of ZPD was the key to helping the children
progress. ‘Mothers
whose assistance was most effective were those who varied their strategy
according to how the child was doing’. (Mcleod, 2010).
Conducting a
physical and theoretical study, I have revealed that in order for a child to
gain a better education through games, the game must be accessible to multiple
users. This would allow children to interact with eachother, and if needs be,
gain assistance from their parents/teacher. This is proven in John Hunter’s
physical study, playing the ‘World Peace
Game’. The board game taught children valuable skills in strategy, politics
and communication. Where as the
theoretical side of educating a child (Piaget, Vygotsky), is through
understanding how a child’s mind works and develops, as they get older (Piaget).
This allows the parents to understand their child’s potential, through the
process of ZPD (Vygotsky). From my personal analysis of both Vygotsky and
Piaget, their theories fit in perfect correlation with Hunter’s study. His
methods revealed a way for children to learn valuable lessons in life through
communicating and interacting with each other, all within the confines of the
classroom. ‘Children
NEED social interaction to gain influence from others and gain ideas from their
parents as well as peers’ (Bogost, 2008).
Harvard
Referencing
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Format
of Source of Information
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Harvard
Reference
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Citation
in Text
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E-Book
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Bogost, Ian, 2008
The Rhetoric of Video Games, Edited by Salen Katie.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Series on Digital Media and Learning
6/5/13
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(Bogost, 2008)
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Live
Talk
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Hunter, John: TED talk 2011
9/05/13
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(Refer to YouTube link)
(Hunter, 2011)
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Websites
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James, Eddy, Samuel, 2010
9/5/13
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(S. James, 2010)
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Mcleon, Saul, First published 2009, updated
2012
Jean Piaget
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(Mcleod, 2009)
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Mcleon, Saul,
First published 2010, updated 2012
Zone of Proximal Development
7/5/13
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(Mcleod, 2010)
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E-Book
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Nielsen, EgenfeldT [SIC]
Simon, 2007
Third
Generation Educational Use of Computer Games, IT University of Copenhagen
Denmark
1/5/13
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(Buckingham & Scanlon, 2002; Konzack, 2003)
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Piaget's
Stages Reconsidered, 2013
8/5/13
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(Segall, 1990)
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Video
Games
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User: S. SP, 2012
9/5/13
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Refer to YouTube link)
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Bibliography
All
information on reference material and further research can also be found on my
Blog.
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Reason For
Referring
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Link
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Date
Looked At
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Studying Piaget’s theories
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9/5/13
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Customer product reviews
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7/5/13
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Customer product reviews
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7/5/13
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Piaget 4 stages
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9/5/13
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Vygotsky overview of theories
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9/5/13
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Further supporting Vygotsky
theories
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8/5/13
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Additional source for Piaget’s
theory
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9/5/13
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Additional information on Vygotsky
theories
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8/5/13
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About John Hunter and the ‘World Peace Game’
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5/5/13
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