Jon Roberts has spent two years teaching children with special needs and educational problems in Warwick, England. During that time he's also developed music education workshops for the Armonico Consort, a music company from the same area. He is currently finishing a master's degree in Genetic Counselling at Cardiff University, alongside which he has taught at Lindamood-Bell learning process, a centre that helps children with language, comprehension and maths by developing their understanding of visual and pictorial imagery. In the remaining time he has aside from all this, Jon writes articles about video games for TVG like this one...
Yesterday morning, a small news story appeared that unsurprisingly got lost amongst all the song and dance over News of the World phone hacking, Rupert Murdoch's subsequently unsuccessful bid to take over BskyB, and the attempts to stop him from creating a giant death star that will orbit the world and cause everyone’s face to melt so we will all look like him and Harry Redknapp, presumably. Underneath the story about Murdoch, phones, and newspapers was a report which showed that, in UK schools, poorer students are falling further behind their more wealthy peers in the education process. According to the BBC, a Sutton Trust study found pupils eligible for free meals in schools below national standards were a third less likely to reach GCSE targets than better-off students elsewhere. This follows on from a study in May of this year, conducted by the Confederation of British Industry, which raised concerns over the standard of the basic skills that pupils were leaving school with. Specifically, the organisation's annual education and skills survey also suggested that many employers (44%) have had to invest in remedial training for school and college leavers.
The trust is launching an Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) targeting this group of children, using £125m of government money and income from other sources. The Sutton Trust says it will aim to focus support on "innovative projects and on scaling-up projects which are cost effective and have the potential to be replicated in other schools."
I put forward the idea that some of this dosh could be spent on developing video games to help those from poorer backgrounds who are falling behind. If we want to turn kids from dummies into smarties then video games could have the answer. Let me explain why:
Contrary to the idea that video games are merely violent bloodfests aimed at adolescent piss weasels, there is good evidence to show that they can be used effectively in education, and this is an idea that is becoming more mainstream. In a recent speech to the Royal Society, the Minister for Education, Michael Gove encouraged educators to experiment with using video games to help teach maths and science. This seems like a sensible idea given video games’ rich history of being used in new and imaginative ways.
Take, for example, a study published by the American Medical Association in 2007 which found that video game skill correlates with Laparoscopic surgical skills, concluding that “Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.” Going back to 1996, research printed in the Perceptual & Motor Skills journal suggested that reaction times could be improved in children through computer game use. And as far back as 1986 a study in the same journal showed that spatial visualisation test scores can be improved by video game playing.
Video games are often cited as causes for reduction in concentration levels in children, leaving their attention spans shorter than a hermit’s address book. However, while there is evidence that certain video games can correlate with reduced attention spans, there’s also plentiful evidence to suggest that the opposite is true. For example, Alan Pope of the NASA Langley Research Centre used video games with a ‘Biofeedback’ process (originally used to improve the attention span of astronauts) to reduce the impulsiveness and hyperactivity of children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Video games have also been used in health care settings. ‘Packy and Marlon’ were characters created for the SNES to help children and adolescents with their diabetes treatments. They were so successful that two new characters have been created: ‘Bronkie the Brachiosaurus’ (for asthma self-management) and Rex Ronan for smoking prevention. Presumably Penisy Pete will soon follow for those with erectile dysfunction. Go to clickhealth.org if you want to know more, although prepare to be disappointed if you expect to find Mr. Pete.
For me, the evidence that strongly supports the idea that video games can be used to help struggling students from poorer backgrounds is that they are great motivators. Take, for example, Kandie Demarest’s account of her autistic 7 year-old son (found at lessontutor.com/kd3.html). Demarest testifies that, although her son had serious deficiencies in language and understanding, and social and emotional difficulties, video game playing was one activity where he was able to excel. This was ego-boosting for him and also had a self calming effect. Anecdotally my experience of teaching challenging children is that if you find something they are good at you can use it as a hook with which to hang other positive beliefs about themselves. I used sports and music, and I see no reason why video games should not be the same.
Other than providing an arena where young people can have successes, and therefore a sense of achievement crucial to all successful learning, video games have that great motivating factor: they are often good, honest fun. An article in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology points out, “Curiosity, fun and the nature of the challenge appear to add to a game’s education potential.” The value of the joy found in video games – which is so often forgotten – has been demonstrated in the arena of medical rehabilitation. In one case study a video game was used to improve arm control in a 13 year-old boy with Erb’s palsy. The authors concluded that the game format capitalized on the child’s motivation to succeed and focused attention away from potential discomfort. Pamela Kato writes a good article outlining different ways video games can be used in health care settings - they are divisive and imaginative, ranging from anxiety reduction to helping with chemotherapy symptoms, and physiotherapy. All the applications rest on the assumption that video games can be real, genuine fun and that people want to play them. Fun, educational and confidence boosting. Sounds like they’re worth at least of some that £125 million to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment