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What do game designers and educators have in common?
by Jim McDermott

Today’s modern game designers are educators in their own right!  Sure the goals of educators and game designers are different but they play by the same game book in creating effective learning experiences that reflect an understanding of the learning sciences.  In our journey to understanding the power of gaming in the classroom, I’d like to share some information that was shared with me by one of our star teachers who is studying education technology on the graduate level.  Let’s take a look at how games teach, why we can say game designers are experts in instructional design, and why we should be eager to employ gaming in the classroom.

The next time your daughter or nephew gets a new video game, notice how there are no manuals.  There is a reference guide and maybe you’ll find a fiction book with the story line, but no manual.  In today’s game, the player is taught how to play in the game using strategies that reflect principles of Bruner’s constructivist learning theory and Bandura’s social learning theory. 

Gamers are encouraged to learn through the active process of playing where they make decisions, construct hypothesis, and discover principles by themselves.  Each time the player needs a new skill, there is a learning stage where the player may deviate from the main game and play a micro-game to give an opportunity to master that skill.  Afterwards, they return to the main game and continue playing with their new skill or knowledge scaffolded into their skillset.  Besides fostering a sense of adventure, this approach allows players to explore and discover while knowledge is added as players attempt to make sense of the experience.

As games become more sophisticated, the constructivist learning environment includes an authentic, complex learning environment with critical thinking to solve problems while learning game play.  An apprenticeship model is utilized to teach gaming basics where a virtual guide or narrator coaches, advises, and fosters understanding.  A storyline adds interest to the game play and gives players a sense of chronology that they can anchor learning experiences to which helps in recall and predicting future events.  When the game goes multiplayer, gamers benefit from the social learning principles where they observe each other playing, model best practices, and solicit feedback from their peers – all within the virtual environment. 

Game designers use the principles of learning theories to teach volumes of information relevant to understanding game play and keeping people playing their games.  Have they been successful?  When you realize how much learning is happening in the average game, how much knowledge gamers are digesting (albeit frivolous), and how well they are working with their newfound information, it’s clear that games are effective in the teaching/learning process.  With this in mind, choosing the right games that capitalize on these design strategies can both reinforce and actually teach curriculum students need to know.  My next post will look at some of my favorite games that are making use of the power of gaming in the classroom toward academic success.

Check out Matthew Valia’s paper on the learning theories behind gaming for an interesting analysis of the maturing of the Zelda franchise’s use of instructional design in gaming.

http://www.matthewvalia.com/zeldalearningstages