Download Zachary Colosa 5/1/2014 Freshman Compostion Research Paper

Zachary Colosa
5/1/2014
Freshman Compostion
Research Paper Section 2
Section II: The Benefits of Using Video Games as Learning Tools
There are many benefits to using video games as learning tools. For example, because
video games are fun and engaging, by transferring educational content in to a video game
platform, the idea is that because the student will be engaged in the environment, not only will
they learn the content to levels beyond what would be possible through a standard classroom
lecture, but the student would more than likely enjoy it. Not only that, but because they’re having
fun while doing it, the content will better manifest itself within the child’s mind. While it’s great
that games are fun and engaging, “games also require deep thinking; just think of how chess is a
canonical problem solving exercise for artificial intelligence programmers” (Squire 2008). The
reason that chess is used in this sense is that to truly create artificial intelligence, it must be
known that the AI can make its own decisions based on logic, and what better way than using a
game that involves countless possible scenarios like chess, checkers, or any other game of the
like. Likewise, video games can be used to engage the students in their learning to a significantly
higher degree than a teacher ever could.
“To know is a verb before it is a noun, knowledge. We learn by doing—not just by doing
any old thing, but doing something as part of a larger community of people who share common
goals and ways of achieving those goals.” Basically, by accomplishing something together as a
group, the entire community’s way of understanding becomes further developed (Shaffer et al.
2004).
One such instance of a large number of people working together towards a common goal
in video games comes from any massive multi-player online game, commonly referred to as
MMO’s. Although not in any way intended to be an educational game, an example of an MMO
is World of Warcraft. In this game, groups of 10-25 take on cooperative missions involving using
the abilities they have in synergy with the common goal of taking down difficult bosses, with
three different subtypes of players: the healers, the tanks, and the DPS. The healers have the job
of keeping everyone in the group alive, most notably the tank which has the job of taking the
primary focus of the enemy forces so that the DPS (damage dealers with low defenses) can do as
much damage as possible without much fear of dying. By working together with the same goal,
every member of the party gains knowledge, and eventually they may be able to be the leader of
the group themselves one day (the guy that explains strategy, makes calls, and dishes out new
equipment for defeating certain bosses). Although World of Warcraft in no way was ever
intended to be an educational game, the people involved still learn quite a bit on that specific
subject through hands on experience in just a few hours; much more than a student will learn
about a specific subject by learning through conventional methods of repetition.
If these aspects of group work could also apply to school work in the education sense,
then by working together towards a common goal of solving a complex problem, a group of
students that all participated and contributed towards solving the problem would all gain hand on
experience that would last them more than just until the next test, where they will likely forget
what they have learned, meaning that they will have to learn it again later, again and again, until
they understand the content. The point is, is that working together towards a common goal is
worlds beyond working alone on a problem that the student couldn’t care less about in value.