Game on for improved skills in the classroom

Published on Tuesday 14 October 2008 19:56

Dave Cook looks at a new project in which the world of video games fuels interest in traditional subjects

IT IS A commonly held view that work and play do not mix, but Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) has recently completed a pilot scheme that aims to bring video games into classrooms across Scotland.

Funded by the Scottish Government, the Dundee-based organisation has recognised how well children become engaged, motivated and challenged by gaming. With pupils of all ages growing up in a technology-rich society, the current curriculum is in danger of falling behind, so how can schools change to meet this new digital landscape?

The early Nineties saw a massive shift in funding towards bringing personal computers to the classroom. Many view this as a waste of resources, because spending money on new technology in the classroom and hoping grades will improve as a result is optimistic at best.

Careful consideration must be given to how this technology is integrated into the lesson plan. Currently researching the application of games in the curriculum, Derek Robertson, a former primary school teacher and new technologies development officer at LTS, is integral to the current games-based learning initiative, the roots of which began in his classroom over ten years ago.

"It was the last day of term at Christmas and one of the boys in my class brought in a Super Nintendo and wanted to play it," he recalls. "I didn't quite know what it was, so they set it up and these two boys started playing a game that involved the manipulation of two-dimensional shapes. I was amazed at how good these boys were at this game – and how engaged and focused they were."

At the time, Mr Robertson explains, the two pupils were in the lowest group for maths, and teachers believed they simply did not have what it would take to progress further. Often, the boys appeared distant and unable to engage with the task at hand.

Observing their keenness and ability to perform tasks in the game, Mr Robertson concluded the boys were indeed clever and it was his failure to tap into their cultural mindset that proved to be a sticking point.

"When it came to traditional maths context and problem-solving, they weren't the brightest and seemed reluctant to show interest in what I was trying to teach them. When I watched them in this context, I realised that it was me and my curriculum that weren't meeting their needs."

From this point, game-based learning became a regular activity in Mr Robertson's classroom and, after a short period, he says children began to enjoy coming to school more and went home raving about what they had learned that day.

Allowing children to play adventure games in class, and then tasking them with writing short stories based on what they had seen and done, proved to be a popular activity. Over the years, Mr Robertson says, the projects began to garner increasing interest from parents and academics, and LTS offered him a role organising and a centre for researching new ways of implementing gaming into the curriculum.

Today, this centre is called the Consolarium: the Scottish Centre for Games and Learning, and it has provided games-based lesson plans for 27 primary and secondary schools across the country, the results of which have recently been announced.

The scheme involved the hugely successful Nintendo DS title, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. Similar studies have taken place in Japan and have proven to be highly successful, with pupils showing a marked improvement in their studies over a single term.

Before this scheme could begin, LTS selected three primary six classes from similar socio-economic areas in the Dundee area to participate. Next, the children were given written numeracy tests, involving mental arithmetic. This preliminary testing helped to grade the pupil's ability to solve mathematical problems and allowed for comparison at the end of the project.

Mr Robertson believes this planning is key to integrating the game correctly into the lesson plan: "Where other people have considered using games in class, they never really looked at the practical application of it in the classroom. How can teachers make sense of this? How can teachers get success with it? How can they actually apply it in their everyday teaching and learning? These kinds of questions are important when applying any technology in the classroom."

Throughout the trial, the children's ability to solve maths and English problems increased dramatically, as did their social skills, thanks to the inclusion of several multi-player tasks involving other games, such as the popular dog-training title Nintendogs and the rhythm-action hit Guitar Hero.

The Nintendogs project saw children design and run their own kennel, design logos, manage money and write mock business plans. Teachers reported that these activities resulted in pupils becoming more engaged and eager to come to school and that they were performing better than before.

The scheme has, however, received its fair share of scepticism from parents and specialists, who still subscribe to the idea that gaming is a distracter, a contributor to social maladjustment, and has links to obesity.

However, the release of The Byron Review in March has helped to allay some of these fears. The report, written by British clinical psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, looked at the potentially negative effects of video games and the internet on children. Dr Byron identified a "generational digital divide" between children and adults, suggesting parents do not fully understand the media, therefore remain sceptical and overprotective.

It also suggested that the use of the internet and games can prove beneficial to potential for learning and development.

Mr Robertson agrees: "Nintendo, in particular, have done a lot, because they had the idea to take the console out of the bedroom and put it in the living-room. Parental responsibility and involvement in games is a huge factor, but I don't think parents realise the complexity of some of these games that their children are engaging with and the educational benefit they can have."

Perhaps most important of all, the Consolarium operates on an open-door basis, where parents and teachers can visit and learn about the positive impact of gaming in schools. Mr Robertson is active in speaking to anyone with concerns over the project.

"I met with a lot of parents in Aberdeenshire, whose children were using Nintendogs in primary two," he says. "The parents couldn't believe the impact it had on their children, in relation to their ability and keenness to learn.

"Children were running home at night, raving about what had happened at school that day and the parents were thinking: 'There's something in this. My child likes school, my child likes learning.' I think the potential of games in this context is remarkable."

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