A Girl and the Games

I'm not a gamer girl.  I like video games, but I don't think anyone would categorize me as a gamer.  Just a girl who can play video games.  Why?  It's fun.  It's stuff I can't do in real life.  I'll never be a super hero in the real world.  Nor do I drive really, really fast, shoot things, or travel to distant worlds.  But playing a video game?  You can be anything.  You can be the good guy.  You can be evil.  It's a role you're playing.


James Gee makes the point in his article Good Video Games and Good Learning that humans like learning.  I totally agree.  It's in our nature to question things and want to learn more.  But he's right--you go into a school and a good chunk of the time, you won't see that.  But you'll see engagement with video games.  Video games do a lot of things school makes us do: they make us think on our feet (er...chairs), teach us fine motor skills, and problem solving.  Sounds a lot like kindergarten!


The idea that any subject is a series of game is an interesting thought.  I can agree with the idea that life is a series of abstract challenges, but I don't think of everything as a game, quite simply because some things are not a game.  I don't necessarily think solving for x in an equation is a game.  Some might, but I don't.  That could be because I'm not a huge math fan.  I think of life being a series of abstract challenges because most things we encounter in school (and eventually, life) are not things that are solidly right or wrong.  They can be taken from a variety of positions.  But they make us think and create a strategy to solve a problem.  


Gee stated 16 principles that make up a good video game and can relate to education and learning.  Some of them, like production, for example, relate directly to education.  We're told that our students should learn to create their own systems of questioning and find their own answers.  How is this different from the creation of a new, successful video game?  Some of them are things we need more in schools, like challenge and consolidation.  In my mind, a successful lesson will challenge students to their appropriate educational levels.  A good video game has a series of levels that are challenging, but eventually, you figure out how to solve the challenges and you win the level and then the game.  It's fun.  It's good for you.  You like the satisfaction that comes from "winning", be it in school or a video game.


Now, the TED talk by Jane McGonigal did make think.  A lot.  If we turned everything into a problem like those in a video game, does it make people work harder to solve them?  I don't know.  I think it just makes us view them different sometimes.  I like how she talked about trying to "save the world" by playing bigger and better games.  I just found that fun.  Her notion of the "epic win" in gaming is something that I would LOVE to see in education.  The image she showed of the "classic gamer" on the verge of something amazing is what I want my students to be.  I want them to be the best versions of themselves and try the hardest.


But is the answer to that video games?  I just don't know.  In video games, you're trusted to save the world immediately.  That doesn't happen in real life; nor does real life have collaborators who want to do nothing but work with you and help you.  Moreover, how do I find an answer in video games that is applicable to social studies?  I know there's a lot of war-esque games out there and even those based on real life situations.  But I think parents would have some serious issues if I had their kids playing video games everyday.


I think her 10,000 hour idea of expanding knowledge is a bit lofty.  It's a great thought to devote 10,000 hours to something and become incredible at it.  But I don't think life always works that way.  When I was younger, I played violin and cello.  I played thousands of hours of violin and cello.  But I never became that good at it.  And I even liked it!  I just don't think we can put this automatic association with time = automatic success.


McGonigal states that 4 things are making gamers "virtuosos": urgent optimism, tight social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning.  Imagine if learning in school would have that pull on people.  It's pretty heavy.  The epic games she mentions (World Without Oil, Superstruct, and Evoke, the game with the World Bank Institute) are sort of amazing.  I'd love to see how may students would interact with those thoughts and whether they could apply them to their lives.


 She also talks about how people play games to escape.  I'm not sure how she views that.  To me, it's not a bad thing.  Games can be escapism that's safe.  The real world is big and loud and scary.  Sometimes, we need to step away from that.  Is it really that bad to do so in a video game?


Finally, our video clip...one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous, and one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, America.  "You'll be cool one day."






"Look under your bed...they'll set you free."