Good video games invite the players to also shape the story. For example, an economics professor introducing the topic of monopolies might ask students to consider how they would shop for items if they wanted to boycott Amazon. We can do this by activating prior knowledge, such as personal experience, or asking students to share stories of their potential relationships with the course content. If meaning is situated in specific contexts, then one way we can engage students is to consider the stories that matter to them. Frame content with culturally relevant themes.Below are some practical translations of the above principles that can work in our classrooms right now, even without Zoom wizardry. We don’t even have to use video games or gamify classrooms. We don’t have to be tech savants to understand what grabs students’ attention and inspires them. These principles remind educators that the virtual wheel does not need to be reinvented. On a pragmatic level, they learn not only what doesn’t work but also what might work with modification, the foundation of self-regulation. On a metacognitive level, players realize a gap in ability or knowledge that might motivate them to persist. When players take risks and fail, they still learn. The low-stakes challenges of video games empower players to try new strategies and discover novel approaches to problem solving. Of course, the consequences of failing in a video game are much lower than failing an expensive college class that could perhaps even influence one’s career. This approach encourages collaboration, allowing players to actively seek information from others when they require it most. Other video games might rely on social interactions, often facilitated through popular apps like Discord or GameFAQs.
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Right at that moment, the game teaches the player how to construct shelter. Say a player in a particular game is threatened by an oncoming storm. Players typically receive information at the time they need it. At each stage, players practice applying their new learning, first to familiar situations and progressively to novel situations, facilitating transfer. Very rarely do video games ask players to passively listen to and absorb information-instead, they deliver information in usable chunks. Video games make frequent use of interest-based interaction with knowledge, promoting self-directed mastery. Applying newly learned skills and knowledge.Within those stories, players assume an identity that motivates them to make use of whatever the video game is teaching them. Typically, situated meanings are created via stories. Those situated meanings require players to recognize the patterns that indicate how to best apply their newly acquired knowledge. In video games, the concepts and skills a player learns have specific uses in particular moments. For instance, I might know the nutritional content of eggs, but that doesn’t mean I know how to scramble them or even prepare a nutritious breakfast. Knowledge, in other words, only becomes meaningful in certain situations. Gee discussed meaning as being situated in specific contexts. How to improve your public speaking skills (essay).How to manage your time better as an academic (essay).Synchronous instruction is hot right now, but is it sustainable?.Below is a summary of some of those principles. Now is the perfect time to revisit the principles of why video games are so good at teaching and learning in ways most virtual classes don’t seem to be. Prophetically, Gee wrote, “The theories of learning one would infer from looking at schools today comport very poorly with the theory of learning in good video games.” Somewhat ironically, the video-game industry is experiencing a resurgence. But instead, students-many of whom are video-game players-have often hated the virtual learning environments of their universities. It would seem that the move toward more hybrid learning environments should have captivated a student demographic primed by video games. Almost 20 years later, his analysis has become incredibly relevant. In his landmark 2003 book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy James Paul Gee detailed the ways video games do a better job of facilitating literacy learning than education institutions. Really, it’s about time formal education finally catches up. The pandemic forced many of us to move into hybrid, technology-mediated teaching, and as we continue our voyage into such spaces, one thing that we in higher ed should remember is that many students have long been quite good at navigating hybrid environments.