April 2007 — Features
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Gaming :: Eat Breakfast, Drink Milk, Play Xbox
“I think it should be called a ‘virtual learning environment,’ not gaming,” she says. “Because this is presented as gaming, people have a visualization—a preconceived notion—of what that is. And there are some forms of games that are like tabloids, and some that are really educational. But I think ‘gaming’ is a word that has had its time and place.
“I think we are in an evolutionary process,” she adds. “Once the next generation of instructors retires, this type of teaching and learning will be the norm. Look at how life has changed with computers—shopping changed; learning at the adult level changed. The next step will be learning at the other levels.”
Haydock worked with students on the River City Project, a simulation gaming environment that asks players to solve a growing health crisis among the residents of a virtual town. The game puts heavy emphasis on math and science principles, and draws on project management and collaboration skills. Haydock quickly noticed a difference in the thinking process of the participating students. “The students became very innovative. They were problem-solving at a very high level.”
Kate Messner, a seventh-grade English instructor at Stafford Middle School in Plattsburgh, NY, whose students participated in the River City Project, believes the game actually plays to the current generation’s strength at multitasking.
“One thing I found surprising was how easily the students adapted to the [game’s] complexity,” she says. “When I first previewed River City and saw all the different components… I thought it was a little overwhelming. Not so for the kids. They’re a generation of multitaskers. They do their homework in front of the computer at night with a list of MP3s in one window, an essay in a second window, and two online chats happening in another one. For them, it’s no problem to conduct research, interview residents, chat with their own teammates, and keep an eye on water samples all at the same time. It lets them learn in many different ways.
“If you think about it, every new thing had the fear of God put into it at first— comic books, radio, television, movies, music. This is just something that people are slowly getting used to.”
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Charlene O'Hanlon is a freelance writer based in New York.
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