Students today are media savvy. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation*, daily use of media among children of all ages has increased dramatically over the past five years. In a typical day, kids now spend an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes using entertainment media—a 20 percent increase since 2005 that researchers attribute primarily to the increased availability and capability of cell phones. Today's multi-tasking young people spend more time texting, listening to music, watching videos, and playing video games on their cell phones than they do talking on them.
But among all these options, video games have emerged as the top interactive media choice for children and youth, accounting for an average 1 hour and 30 minutes of media use each day. And that has real implications for teachers.
There's nothing new about using games in the classroom. Teachers have always used word games and matching games to build language, literacy, and counting skills; to improve small and large motor coordination skills; to reinforce critical thinking and problem-solving skills; and to teach children about winning and
losing, working together, and taking turns. What is new is that,
in today's classrooms, more and more of those games are played on a console or computer.
Teachers in all grades in classrooms throughout the country have recognized the value of video games. They are using them to engage their students in creative approaches to an even wider range of subjects than they could with traditional games,
and with the added benefit of building technology skills
that will last a lifetime.
And because video games combine every kind of digital content—text, image, video, music, and software—they can also be used to teach many valuable lessons about copyright. The members of the ©Team—Rick the Writer, Alan the Artist, and Patty the Programmer—each contribute toward creating the digital content in video games. It's a collaborative effort that results in a unique kind of intellectual property shaped by creativity in many forms. By pointing out the copyright and terms-of-use information when a video game is used in the classroom, teachers can reinforce this connection between creativity and copyright, while building respect for intellectual property in all forms.
teaching with video games
Using video games as a teaching tool can require considerable planning. Fortunately, there are many resources to help speed the planning process. For example:
- Talk with your district curriculum coordinator, media librarian, and other teachers to identify games that you can tailor to your curriculum needs. Ask about commercial games as well as games that have been developed specifically for educational use.
Tip: The George Lucas Educational Foundation's Edutopia website contains some helpful discussions about using video games for teaching. See, for example, Wii Love Learning: Using Gaming Technology to Engage Students, at
www.edutopia.org/ikid-wii-gaming-technology-classroom.
- Talk with your students about the games they like to play. Visit the game websites to learn more about those games.
Tip: In many cases you can download a demonstration version of the game so that you can try it for yourself.
- Consider ways you might incorporate age-appropriate games into classroom activities and homework assignments.
Tip: Just as with any situation where students are engaged in various activities at the same time, be sure to move around the classroom to answer questions, provide assistance when needed, and ensure that students are on task.
- Build small-group gaming into your differentiated instruction plan to provide your students with new ways of learning. For example, if your lesson plan focuses on various aspects of basic math skills (addition, subtraction, etc.), you might set up a video game that focuses on a specific one of those skills at one or more of your learning stations.
Tip: The Children's Video Game Guide on the EdutainingKids.com website (www.edutainingkids.com/videogames.html) contains reviews of a number of popular video games that consist of a strong educational component.
Video Game Lesson Plans
Several video game manufacturers have partnered with curriculum developers to produce standard-based lesson plans that use specific games to reinforce learning objectives in many subject areas.Following are lesson plans available at the Young Minds Inspired (YMI) educator website, www.ymiclassroom.com:
- Go Wild with Endangered Species (using Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon 2)—grades 4-5
- Let Physics Take Flight (using Microsoft's Flight Simulator X)—grades 9-12
- How Would You Change History? (using Microsoft's Age of Empire III)—grades 9-12
Using Video Games with Traditional Lesson Plans
One starting point for bringing video games into the classroom is to integrate gaming into traditional learning activities.
For example:
- Have students write reviews of the video games they and their classmates play.
- Working in small groups, challenge students to develop the rules for a new game that would reinforce the facts/concepts/principles they are learning in class.
- Ask students to create a new fitness exercise they would like to include in a new version of a fitness-oriented video game.
- Ask students to keep a log of the amount of time they spend playing video games during a two-week period and create a graph that illustrates their daily and weekly activity patterns.
- Have students create the plans for a new website that informs kids about the educational applications of the different games they play.
- Point out the copyright and terms of use information for each game you introduce into your classroom. Use the opportunity to reinforce the importance of adhering to copyright and use regulations.
