Education Innovation via Video Games

I was never a "gamer" growing up. I never owned an xbox or a ps3. I saw it as a waste of time and something that killed brain cells. I would hear kids talking about it at school and how they spent their entire Saturday playing some game and how they spent days trying to slay one dragon. When they finally killed that dragon, boy that was a big day. When I heard about teachers using video games in education I couldn't find a reason as to why that would be a good idea. I thought, "I will never be one of those teachers." Until now.
One day in my ECI 296 class, Jennifer LaGarde came and spoke to us about how she used video games in her school to boost math scores. My mind was blown. Video games have something that positively affects the brain. It totally makes sense. Why do people spend so much time on one thing in a world full of short attention spans? How do video games motivate people to try over, and over, and over despite their failures? How do video games keep people's attention for such a long time? The Ted Talk by Tom Chatfield explains all of these questions.

In short, video games provide just enough challenge in relation to rewards to keep people motivated. They aren't so hard that people give up, however its just easy enough to keep people engaged. Implementing this idea into education is probably the most brilliant thing I've ever heard! 5 million students play 45 plus hours of video games a week. If students spent half the time they do playing video games, working on math and reading skills America's education program would sky rocket through the roof. So why not combine these two things to give students a way to learn and enjoy it at the same time. 

It requires some work on the teachers part, but it is possible to take a video game that students already enjoy playing, and make it educational. Ms. LaGarde used Wii games and had students calculate percentages and ratios using bowling and basketball stats. There are also educational games already made for teachers to use such as: Lemonade Stand, Carmen Sandiego, and Oregon Trail. 

After being enlightened on the benefits of video games and how they can can be implemented into education I am so excited to use them in my classroom. I want to inspire my students to learn and if video games make them eager to learn I will give them that opportunity. Video games may get them excited to come to school and give them something to work for. This will trigger something in their brain that helps them to stay engaged and motivates them to learn and attain their goals. Part of teaching includes meeting the students where they are. We have to inspire them and give them a reason to work. We have to try to make it fun and exciting. It's our job to do our best to find what it is in them that motivates them to work hard, and ignite that with a passion to learn. I think I just found a new way to do this.