Progress is an inevitability of human life. It has changed the way we eat, the way we communicate, and the way we get from one destination to another, and now it may even change the way we learn.
In an old building near New York City’s Gramercy Park, a small non-charter public school has begun exploring the connection between technology and learning. To be more specific, the school has set to using video games as its main tool for teaching.
Implementing these interdisciplinary classes to teach subjects like pre-algebra, basic physics, writing and ancient civilizations, the Quest to Learn school seems to have accepted the challenge of making learning fun or at the very least, more relevant to students.
Substituting a traditional class for time spent playing video games would win the approval of any 12- to 17-year-old. But can a video game really teach a student the same things a good old textbook or traditional classroom setting can?
Last spring, students at the school completed federally mandated standardized tests.
Sara Corbett of The New York Times magazine spoke to the school’s executive director, Elisa Aragon, regarding the tests. According to Corbett, the scores were equivalent to the school district’s other sixth graders.
While these scores may not look too impressive, educators have applauded video games for teaching their subjects skills that are unlikely to be taught elsewhere.
Among these include better peripheral vision, ability to focus attention, visual-spatial thinking, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
These seem like small feats in comparison to the number of negative qualities associated with video games.
Excessive gaming has been linked to obesity, depression and aggressive behavior. If you disagree with the last sentiment, you probably haven’t seen the video “Greatest freak out ever” on YouTube.
A growing number of education specialists “believe that going to school can and should be more like playing a game … it could be made more participatory, more immersive and also, well, fun,” Corbett said.
Should instructors sacrifice teaching students the fundamentals of education for the sake of making the classroom more entertaining?
The new approach won’t just make a change in how students learn, but what they learn.
According to Al Doyle, a teacher at Quest to Learn, the move to using video games in classrooms demonstrates this shift in paradigms. To Doyle, the role of a teacher has moved from “teaching toward facilitating,” said Corbett.
Doyle and Corbett discussed “all the wasted energy that goes into teaching things that students don’t need so much anymore, thanks to the tools now available to them.”
If the world were to follow Doyle’s vision of progress, it might look more like something out of an H.G Wells novel.
Doyle calls handwriting a “20th-century skill.” To Doyle, keyboarding is more important, spelling is “outmoded” and essays are as valid as podcasts.
The keyboard has become our pen and paper, and the Internet our substitute for learning through the printed word.
Remember opening a book to find information instead of Googling it? Or can you even remember a time when “Google” wasn’t a verb?
Video games inherently ignore developing the kinds of skills practiced in a traditional learning environment, and it certainly takes a different kind of discipline, self-restraint and dedication to learn things from a book or lecture than it does to play a game.
While video games may be an alternative to teaching school curriculum, they can’t replace the personal development that a traditional approach to learning offers.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t explore this avenue of teaching or its place within the classroom.
Younger students, like those at the Quest to Learn school, may profit from this unique approach to teaching. Perhaps they will be inspired to learn, or at the very least, have a better time doing so.
We also need to consider the affect introducing this technique into the classroom will have on students once they move on to higher education. Will they be prepared for an environment where subjects aren’t taught through video games, or will they even be ready for college at all?
If video games are to be introduced to schools’ curriculum, testing needs to show that the video games offer students as good of a learning experience as traditional schooling.
When and if that happens, we will still have to ask if proving this new method effective means that it is better.
Send comments to Jess at jrstone3@asu.edu
