New Comm Ave

Ryan Ebrahim is an ambitious, Iranian-American youth who strives to do his best in whatever he does. He was born on February 21st, 1990 in Mission Viejo, California. For much of his life, he grew up under very strict rules from his parents. Ryan’s parents demanded nothing short of dominance in the classroom, and most of the time he did not fail to deliver. Ryan is finishing up his first year at Irvine Valley College, and he is planning to transfer to either UCLA or UC Davis by the fall semester of 2010. Whenever he is not completely focused on his studies, Ryan enjoys spending time with his friends, watching television/anime, working out at the gym, and eating food. He also loves listening to music. Although he embraces all different kinds of music, his favorite genre of music is alternative/experimental. His goal in life is to help people while being a productive member of society. Someday, he hopes to become a psychologist in order to help people who need help. He enjoys helping people no matter how bad their problems are. Life is hard, and he is no stranger to dark times. He is a determined and focused individual, and he will always be there for anyone who needs help.

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It's 2:30p.m. on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. There are only five minutes of class left, and 10-year-old Timmy is anxious to hear that final bell toll. Today is Timmy’s birthday, and he hopes his parents bought him the new Dragon Quest game that came out recently for the Nintendo DS video game system.

Every second of every minute feels like an eternity for Timmy. He zones out while the teacher mindlessly discusses how to add and subtract fractions without any student feedback, and instead wonders how his new video game will test his honed skills. At last, the bell rings, and it is time to go home. Timmy rushes towards his mother, who is eagerly awaiting his arrival. Timmy’s mother tells Timmy she has a surprise for him, and she pulls out a fresh copy of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. Overwhelmed with joy, Timmy embraces his mother and hops into the vehicle for the ride home.

When Timmy arrives home, he sprints upstairs into his room and takes out the Nintendo DS. As far as he is concerned, Timmy has reached Nirvana. Timmy’s mother sternly warns Timmy to do his homework, for he has not done it in several days. Timmy ignores his mother’s request and fixates himself into the complex workings of his new game. Within this game, Timmy will take risks, battle fierce bosses, and use logic to solve complex puzzles in order to save the world from impending evil. Timmy will worry about fractions later, for now he is completely enamored with his shiny new video game.

Although people play video games for different reasons, most people can agree that they would rather get to level 80 on World of Warcraft instead of figuring out how to find the area under a parabola. Many people criticize video games because they make kids forget about their studies. They find that video games are too distracting, too time-consuming, and altogether irrelevant towards education as a whole. Are all video games a waste of time? Do people really learn anything worthwhile from the games they play? Is little Timmy doomed to struggle in school because of his fascination with Dragon Quest? The answer to all of those questions is no. The video game paradigm should be used in the classroom because the inherent nature of video games allows students to become motivated towards learning the necessary material.

Hidden Educational Values in Video Games

The state of education today is decaying. In the past, there were smaller classes with more emphasis on the students. The population has grown over the years, and with it the average size of the classroom. The focus in education eventually went from the expansion of the mind to endless standardized tests and standardized lesson plans. In the present day, students are not having a fun time in the classroom. As a direct result of this lack of fun, students are becoming less and less motivated to excel in the classroom. In response to this growing predicament, scholar and educator James Paul Gee stated the following:

“As I struggled, I thought: Lots of young people pay lots of money to engage in an activity that is hard, long, and complex. As an educator, I realized that this was just the problem our schools face: How do you get someone to learn something long, hard, and complex and yet enjoy it. I became intrigued by the implications good video games might have for learning in and out of schools” (Gee 3).

In this excerpt, Gee states that video games can be used towards enhancing the quality of education. Certain types of video games are very complex, and they require much thought in order to be successful. Although this may sound frustrating at first, the puzzles contained in video games are still fun to do. The complex nature of video games can be applied towards the material learned in the classroom. When people have fun while learning, the often forget about the complexity of the given material. They become more motivated towards learning the material, and thus learn the material better in comparison to a seemingly endless lecture-test schedule. Also note that Gee mentions “good” video games instead of just video games in general.

A game like Grand Theft Auto does not have the same positive learning experience as the game Tetris. In Tetris, people have to plan ahead in order to avoid losing the game. This requires complex thought, creativity, and practice in order to sufficiently overcome the game. The game also always provides a challenge for even the most seasoned player, making it a truly difficult game to master. In Grand Theft Auto, very little cognitive action is required. The only real dilemma that faces the person playing the game is simply who to kill/carjack first. Basically, a “good” video game is a game that makes people think outside the box, and that ideology can definitely be applied towards the enhancement of education. While the idea of a video-game classroom is important, it is essential to note the potential of video games as vehicles of learning.

Failure = Success?

Certain concepts of video games can become powerful learning tools if they are used in the right way. In a recent publication, James Paul Gee noted the following:

“Good video games lower the consequences of failure; players can start from the last saved game when they fail. Players are thereby encouraged to take risks, explore, and try new things. In fact, in a game, failure is a good thing. Facing a boss, the player uses initial failures as ways to find the boss’s pattern and to gain feedback about the progress being made. School too often allows much less space for risk, exploration, and failure” (Gee 6).

The ability to take risks is something that is not taught in a traditional classroom setting. In a traditional classroom, a student can completely screw up his/her grade with just one major assignment. Due to this reality, many students are not prone to taking risks. They do what they do over and over again in hopes of getting a high grade. With a video game-style classroom, a student can realize that failure doesn’t always have to be devastating.

People learn from their mistakes, and with a video game-style classroom mistakes can be made in order to have a better understanding of the material. Within a video-game style classroom, video game principles can be applied to replace traditional classroom values. The point of the video-game classroom is to make the classroom feel more like a video game instead of a stressful place. In the video-game classroom, people can experience a “relaxing challenge”, where the detrimental mental effects of educational stress are absent.

Students will still learn, but they will remain relatively happy in comparison to today’s standards. To juxtapose the traditional classroom and the video game classroom further, a “boss” can represent a test. In video games, a “boss” is a stronger than average enemy that requires more effort to defeat. A test falls under the same definition; it is an assignment that tests the student’s knowledge of the material. If someone messes up on a major test in the traditional classroom, it could spell doom for that individual’s grade.

However, unlike the traditional classroom, a student can restart at an earlier point and try the test again. This can relieve a lot of stress for people who are bad test takers, and it can motivate them to try harder in school thanks to the fact that if they completely bomb a test they can take it over again without any major consequences Some people may consider this unfair, but after all the entire point of going to school is to become educated. Why waste away someone’s potential for being educated just because they don’t do well on tests? With the video game-style classroom, risks can be taken and progress can be made.

A Contradictory Look into the Advent of the Video-Game Classroom

However, the video game-oriented classroom cannot be used effectively for certain classroom situations. For example, most college courses run on a tight schedule. A student cannot “slow down” the pace of one of these courses because the professor can only fit so much material into a certain period of time. It will disrupt the learning pattern of the other students as well. It would also be difficult to “customize” a higher-level education class. There are simply too many students present for the professor to individually tailor a lesson plan for every single student. The video-game classroom is tailored to the individual needs of the student, and if there are too many students in the classroom the task becomes difficult to manage. The traditional style classroom setting works much better for larger classrooms. Despite these minor setbacks, a video-game style classroom can still be ideal for the K-12 education system.

The First Signs of Life

The existence of a video game-style classroom is not a far off pipe dream. To a certain extent, it is happening right now. In a recent periodical, an anonymous author explains the following:

“’Research shows that when kids learn in an engaging, motivating environment with research-based, standards-aligned curriculum, their test scores soar,’ said Mike Evans, Pearson's senior vice president for mathematics. ‘What better way to engage young learners than with the video games that they love customized to teach the critical math concepts that they will need to be successful in our 21st century economy?’” (Anonymous 1).

Since children are used to video games by the time they enter grade school, they are eager to play them. Math is often a difficult subject for many students, however the video game-style classroom can make it fun for even the least motivated individual. Although actual video games are being used in this instance, this can be considered to be the missing link between the traditional classroom and the video game-style classroom. According to the periodical, the students are more motivated to learn the material due to the fact that these games have been specifically customized to teach the material. The soaring test score fact serves as a ray of hope for the existence of the video game-style classroom.

Hope For The Future

The video game paradigm will help motivate students and improve the quality of education. Video games and education may seem like conflicting ideologies right now, but as time passes more people will become familiar with video games. The advent of modern technology is amazing, and it should be used as soon as possible to save education from its current state. Education should never be about stressing over an exam that is worth 50% of a person’s grade, and it should never be about staying up all night to make up all of the past semester’s homework in one sitting.

Education is about enhancing the mind, and the addition of a video game-style classroom will help motivate people to enhance themselves without causing major amounts of stress. With all of the problems in the current educational system, the idea of a video game-style classroom is something that is on the minds of scholars and educators. This is good news for little Timmy, for he represents the future generation. This technologically advanced future generation can pave the way for a video game-style classroom. However, Timmy does realize these things right now. At this time, he is too busy fighting slimes, ghosts, and yetis.

• 2009 Fall
• Research