Gaming for learning
Can video games be used as learning tools?
A teacher in Vietnam did just that, asking students to evaluate the game afterwards. What was the storyline? Who were the characters? What were their traits?
Pretty much like a typical book review assignment.
Integrating games and technology in the curriculum, the challenges involved and the skills and values necessary were discussed in the recent second annual Accelerating Asia Pacific (AAP) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, hosted by Microsoft.
The event showcased the software giant’s partnerships with governments and nonprofit organizations in the region and highlighted programs that made “real positive impact” by using technology in disaster response, health, citizen services and education.
Technology has also entered the classrooms. As a panelist in the “Technology Engaging Students” forum said, the question was no longer whether or not to incorporate technology in the curriculum but how.
Changing learning process
“The way students learn has to be changed,” said Khong Yee Jian, a senior software engineering student who is also cofounder and director of a robotics learning center in Malaysia.
Creative Robotics is a Microsoft Partner in Learning for Kodu Game Lab. Kodu is a visual programming language that even 5-year-olds can easily understand and use to create simple games.
“Games for learning is an interesting topic because gaming is associated with fun, it’s associated with engagement and the concept that when a student plays a game, the student learns,” said Jason Trump, Microsoft’s education partner director for Asia Pacific and moderator of “Gaming4Good: Education through Gaming” forum.
“If you can simulate anything and it’s fun, people will repeatedly play it,” said Levi Tan Ong, a member of the Filipino team that topped the game design category in the 2010 Imagine Cup, touted as the Olympics of Software.
The team entry, “Wildfire,” teaches public cooperation in dealing with social problems. “The repeated exposure makes you learn without knowing it,” Ong said.
Trump agreed that repetition was one of the learning processes involved in gaming.
“We can have students being encouraged to explore, to try, to see what is possible. If I do something wrong, that’s a learning experience. Eventually because of the mistakes we make, we actually make the right decisions that lead to success,” he said.
“One of the opportunities in gaming for learning is how we can build that culture of trying and trying and trying and then succeeding,” Trump said.
Although “games are something that everybody likes,” Khong acknowledged it would take time to integrate this in the educational system.
Skeptical parents
“A lot of parents are skeptical about games because they see their child playing first-person shooting (FPS),” Trump said.
Saying FPS was “not very educational,” Trump stressed, “We always need to make sure that, when we talk about games for learning, the key point is learning.”
Ong said “teachers can also ‘gamify’ the learning process” by turning modules into game stages where students accomplished goals and earned rewards.
Nguyen Ngoc Vu, dean of the English department at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in Vietnam, said technology stimulated “interactions that were not possible with traditional classrooms.”
Students could be tasked to create a documentary on a chosen topic, giving them free hand on content. The project would involve research, creative direction and technical know-how, among other things.
The teacher could take it a step further by uploading the videos to YouTube where other students, and pretty much the rest of the world, could post feedback. It could even be turned into a competition.
But the experts stressed that, with advances in games and technology, it was very important to draw the line between work and play.
“You wouldn’t want your students to be on Facebook or YouTube when you’re trying to teach something,” Trump said.
While parents, teachers and technological restrictions could help establish balance, Khong said “students must also exercise discipline and learn that we cannot go overboard on everything we do.”
The speakers also noted that there were challenges in technological access and infrastructure, teacher training and pedagogy.
“We need to think about education being accessible to all. How do we broaden access so that the platforms are available? How do we make computers cost-effective?” Trump said. “Maybe governments have a role to play there to help us fund some of the costs of the computers and to include Internet connectivity as part of that.”
Teachers, who play an important role in the educational system, must also be trained.
“Teachers don’t often have the ICT skills of the students,” Trump observed.
After gaining skills on information and communications technology (ICT), teachers would have to know how to use technology for learning, or the so-called digital pedagogy.
“Teachers must be equipped with knowledge on what is relevant technology. How do I use it for science class, math class, language class and so on,” Trump explained.
“Another aspect is making sure that the experience with technology is predictive. Think about it: If you’re in a classroom, you got an hour with the students. You go to class and spend 15 minutes trying to make the computers work, that’s 15 minutes gone,” Trump said.
This showed the importance of having a sustainable, reliable and secure infrastructure, he said.
“The challenge there is how to make sure that learning is managed and well operated so that it’s productive,” he said.
Techies with right values
One industry initiative Microsoft has pursued with the University of Melbourne in Australia was the notion of 21st-century skills. What are the skills needed to teach the 21st-century learner?
The initiative has identified four broad categories: ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for working, and skills for living in the world.
These concepts promote critical thinking, collaborative learning and ICT literacy.
The fourth category was “more about social impact. How do we make sure that people are doing the right things, that they are getting a sense of values, using the Internet for good and not for the bad,” Trump said.
During the forum, Trump asked panelists what should be included as a 21st-century skill. Former Thai Senator Mechai Viravaidya quickly replied, “Politeness.”
To the audience’s amusement, Viravaidya said there were already “a lot of mean people” and “what we need are people with good values—honest, caring and innovative.”
Viravaidya, a recipient of the Philippines’ Ramon Magsaysay Award, is founder of the Bamboo School, a learning center that teaches basic literacy and social enterprise to children and families in rural areas. Students pay for their education with hours of community service, instead of cash.
Viravaidya said, “It shouldn’t be technology for technology’s sake. (Technology) must go hand in hand with social values.”
