Soundbytes on education
Minds learn best through play. We understand that they grow through the repetitive modelling of problems and finding their own solutions. But, as soon as our children pack away the Lego and plug in the Xbox, we become concerned. We are suspicious of this new form of play.
Video games are internal, hypnotic experiences where the mental involvement required is so deep that the outside world in effect disappears. But, at best, the games are like teachers: they watch the player and adjust the level according to the player's ability. Crucially, the game acknowledges that, without the player, it is nothing. The attraction of games as a space for "proper" learning, then, is irresistible.
The annual Hidden Agenda competition in the US offers a $25,000 prize to students who can create the best "stealth education" video game. The aim is to come up with a game where players have so much fun that they "accidentally learn stuff along the way". "What if educational games rivalled the quality and game-play of today's top-selling video games?" the site tantalisingly asks. The question itself perpetuates the myth that top-selling video games are not educational.
But there are already many games on the market that are rich in educational content. Sim City and Civilisation are obvious examples, but we can also look to Super Monkey Ball as a sophisticated exploration of velocity, friction and gravity; Championship Manager as a data-handling model; or Animal Crossing as a study in societal interaction and managing long-term debt. The unfortunate fact is, as a recent Nesta Futurelab report acknowledged, that these titles are unlikely to reach the classroom because they are viewed as utterly frivolous.
Educators need to re-evaluate their tactics. Further emulating the specific game engines and titles that players not only associate with, but are also learning from, might make their "serious" games more popular.
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this year, Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave a fascinating presentation of the educational work they had done with the Neverwinter Nights game engine. Students had been asked to model a Saxon community by sculpting architecture, creating characters and scripting these characters' responses to various player actions. In so doing, they went beyond a visual reconstruction of a moment in history, adding an emotional and social dimension to the project. While the project was not without problems, it was acknowledged that its success hinged on its being built from a commercial game engine.
Serious games are gathering pace. In the US, we have seen electoral candidates commissioning video games as propaganda tools, and activist groups modifying commercial engines into platforms for subversion. This year the Serious Games Summit is even being sponsored by the US army.
This is hardly surprising when you consider that the army is keen to set its own official video game, America's Army, apart from those played for amusement value. The idea is a difficult one, given that the game is maintained by an annual expenditure of $2.5m and marketed as a first-person shooter. They may say that it's an outreach tool showing elements of life in the army, but the gameplay is firmly behind a gun.
Just as America's Army is an educational tool, marketed as a game, so the key to claiming video games as a tool for learning lies in the marketing of games by the mainstream industry. Just as it took a Jamie Oliver to make a nation care about its dietary health, so it will take a Sony to make PlayStation users leap from their seats in search of a game with an educational purpose.
Later this year, we will see the first strike in the gradual repositioning of PlayStation as a lifestyle device. Eye Toy: Kinetic, developed with Nike, aims to get the player aerobically exercising in front of the television as they have never done before.
For obvious commercial reasons, the industry is keen to collaborate with the players who set the benchmarks. To that end, "modding" - where users create modifications in games themselves - has become the latest advancement in gaming technology. For example, Half-Life 2, a first-person shooter game, is now routinely supplied with rich software toolsets enabling the users to create their own narratives and environments. If educational games are going to realise their potential, they will have to move in the same direction and realise that play and players are the key to their success.
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