Readings

Can computer games enhance earning and learning?

Does playing a computer game help you learn? If so what and how? How about earn? If so, how much and how?

As you read this a UK gaming team is competing for prizes worth more than $1m over the next six months. The 4Kings team is taking part in six separate gaming events in Europe and US all of which reward winners and runners-up with cash prizes. The prize money for the Cyber X Games is $600,000 and multiplayer gaming is slowly evolving into a professional sport. 4Kings has about 25 members, with squads arranged around the games they play. Team members compete professionally in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake III, Warcraft III, Unreal Tournament and CounterStrike. Like any other team the players train together for several hours per day, have coaches and refine strategies and tactics for the different maps that the games are played on.

According to Donald Clark, CEO of the UK Epic Group gamers also benefit from three types of learning: general skills, contemporary skills and subject knowledge and skills. Lets take the first two and examine what it might mean.

General skills developed by playing computer games

Literacy - accessing instructions and large amounts of text
Numeracy - scoring, acquisition of objects and attributes with numerical value, approximation and estimation are all integral to games
Communication - there's a surprising amount of games related discussion (inaccessible to anyone over voting age) and exchange of ideas stimulated by such games
IT - web searching for additional features, sites and cheats and peer learning erodes fear of hardware and software
Hand-eye co-ordination - a 30% increase in test of visual ability amongst regular gamers according to University of Rochester research published this year
Strategy - strategically define, deliver and be responsible for a business, city, environment or family! Try delivering that in a double period!
Contemporary skills developed by playing computer games
visual literacy - which has pre-eminence: the book or the screen?
open ended problem solving - you are given a challenge and off you go
handling multiple variables - the better you become the more you have to handle
embedded decision making - you are the decision-maker in the field: how do you deploy your team?
emergent learning - the simulation of a theme park or a city or a family builds on increasingly complex challenges with cause and effect shaping each twist and turn
real life scenarios - you are the fire chief and the multi-storey is aflame
virtual environments - explore the Palace of Versailles room by room
multiple perspectives - switch roles and see the problem in a different light
search - if you're not happy with what's on offer look elsewhere
'no teacher' learning - it's just you and the help button!
safe rehearsal and self test - if you alone know the results then maybe you'll give it your best shot
Subject knowledge and skills developed by playing computer games include all the worthy subject stuff that we teachers do!

Are there any disadvantages? Yes! Most of us will earn nothing at all from gaming and be faced with some expense. Some of the opportunities to learn also contain inherent problems:

Male predominance - most games are written by males for other males and feature 'male' interests
Role models - predominantly action and outcomes focused, games are often peopled by a narrow range of human types
Stereotyping - the game Hitman2 provoked an online petition signed by 10,000 who complained about the use of the Golden temple in Amritsar in the game
Solitude - games are played as an individual but in fairness multiplayer games are the norm
Violence - violent behaviour is often, though not always, the mode of interaction and is not contextualised. Violence can be 'normed'
cheats culture - it is permissible, and sometimes expected, to cheat
focus on winning - games designers use the concept of critical failure and incremental feedback but winning is the key
expense - games budgets can be upwards of £5 million with similar marketing spends and upwards investment shifts up expectations; education cannot realistically compete
poorly designed games disappoint - many educational games have had limited investment and it is reflected in their poor quality
scratch and sniff - persistence is a good learning quality, but with some games the opt out is too easy