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Educational Video Games A Holy Grail of Learning
by Jim McDermott

I almost grew up.  Everything was going as it should:  I found I had no time to play video games as adult matters took center stage in my life.  Then my brother insisted I play a massive multiplayer game with him and I had an immediate relapse into video gamedom.  It was bad.  Adult matters had to move over and make room for other important information in my head:  like the number of supply depots that would be necessary to support an army of goliaths, or the countermeasures needed to defend a drop attack that took into account a range of factors to be considered on the fly: hit points, shielding, special abilities, strategies, and a host of other influences.  My brother and I would spend hours playing and when we were not playing we were debating build orders or sharing attack strategies.  In a very short time, I had memorized and synthesized an obscene amount of information.  Why?  Because it was so much fun.

Educators are beginning to see this phenomenon as a holy grail of learning.  Everyone is analyzing gaming's power to engage, motivate, and teach/reinforce obscene amounts of information.  Yes, games have been employed in teaching for years (airline pilots learn to fly through simulations, soldiers learn to negotiate in battle, surgeons learn to perform complex procedures in risk free environments).  But more recently we've seen games that bring this synergy into the classroom.  Studies are being done on the psychology of gaming, the demographics of game players, how to infuse standards based learning into an immersive gaming environment, the effects on standardized test scores, etc, etc, etc.  All attempts at quantifying the gaming phenomenon so we can explain and justify its validity in learning and give us a rationale for investing in this technology to promote student achievement. 

And while all the studies are good and necessary, I would propose that the best way to understand gaming's power is to see it for yourself.  Ideally as a player yourself or as a facilitator of a pilot program in your school.  I had the opportunity to run a pilot for a math program that utilizes some of the latest in gaming technologies to teach algebra.  What did I find?  That in a high stakes competive immersive gaming environment, children learn obscene amounts of information.  They shared strategies for solving math problems, discussed teamwork strategies, assigned tasks, and collaborated on learning in ways I had never seen before.  Why?  Because they were having fun. 

I am honored to have an opportunity to share about the power of gaming in education through the Digital Learning Environment.  We'll look at what the research says, I'll have an opportunity to share my favorite educational games, and I'll let you know the best ways to integrate gaming into learning to maximize the experience and make learning more fun while raising test scores.  But my first piece of advice is to make room in your adult life to play a multiplayer video game.  It's the best starting point, it's research, and you might actually have fun.