An ASU professor explored how video games are tools for education in a lecture Wednesday night on the Tempe campus.

James Gee, a literary studies professor, discussed the evolution of language and learning as assisted by digital media to a crowd of about 40 people in his presentation “Language in a Digital Age.”

Basically, Gee plays video games.

“I write about games because I realize if I’m going to play them this much, I won’t have a career if I don’t,” he said jokingly.

You can’t really research anything without immersing yourself in the topic, Gee said. He has spent thousands of hours playing games such as World of Warcraft, The Sims, Metal Gear Solid and Half-Life.

Gee has used his research to develop a theory of situated learning. This style of learning applies verbal definitions with practical applications, he said.

He used the example of a video game manual: If you read a manual before you play the game, it’s meaningless, but if you read it afterward, it serves a purpose, he said.

“Language works best when it is grounded in experience,” Gee said.

Digital media, such as video games, allow language to be embodied in action, he said.

In this way even young children can learn complex systems, he said.

The game Yu-gi-oh is an example. There are 10,000 cards in the game, each with a complex set of rules that can only be understood as the game is played, he said.

Each technical term is associated with physical action. Young children are learning these games, and in the process they’re learning to use complex systems with hundreds of variables, he said.

Ryan Skinnell, a teaching associate in the English department, said he enjoyed the lecture but thought the idea was troublesome.

As a first-year composition professor, he said the trouble lies in the application of situated learning in a classroom environment.

He said he would like to apply the principles from the lecture but doesn’t know how he would implement them.

“I think he’s right, I agree with him, but the whole time I was having a hard time considering how I could put that to work in my class,” he said.

Jennie Wojtulewicz, a language and literacy graduate student, attended the lecture and is currently researching the integration of learning academic concepts through video games.

She said she’s part of a “research in a virtual world class” where she plays World of Warcraft.

Her project studies state-required ninth-grade learning standards and plays the game to determine how much of the curriculum can be learned this way.

Video games can set an example for how situated learning can be applied in the future, Wojtulewicz said. Technology must be integrated into our schools in ways that will positively affect students, she said.

“We can’t continue to have a public education in a manner that does not include the skills that students are going to have to use for a 21st-century career force,” she said.

Reach the reporter at rvanvelz@asu.edu.