October 2007 — News
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Can Game Development Impact Academic Achievement?
It "has been found to be an effective way to learn school-related material" (King, Staffieri, and Adelgais, 1998, p. 134). The basic argument with peer or collaborative learning is that teachers have content-based expertise, but students can also learn from their fellow students. In many cases, students can present content in a format that engages their colleagues at levels they understand or appreciate (Collis & Moonen, 2006). This is an extremely important point because for the most part, children spend far more time in direct interaction with their peers than they do with adults (Rogoff, 1994).Ownership is a third important pedagogic concept. Self-regulated learners must develop the understanding that they in control of their learning, mastery of tasks, and attainment of goals (Sandford & Richardson, 1997). Videogame development lets teachers offer content area focus (e.g. develop a game that teaches history or math), but it lets students determine what the game looks like, the main characters in the game, the surroundings and background, the gaming rules, and the storyline and context of the game.
Finally, videogame development is important because it gives an opportunity for students to have active (part of a constructivist approach), hands-on learning as they publish artifacts of their cognitive processes. Publication allows for subsequent reflection and analysis, allowing students to revisit and revise their artifacts, thus enriching the learning experience (Olson, 1994). Hands-on activities help students "blend theory and practice, success and failure, and school and society into a mental foundation for future thought" (Korwin & Jones, 1990, ΒΆ 9; also see Dewey, 1980).
Benefits of Student Videogame Making
Videogame making can be pedagogically sound, but there are also other, direct benefits to having students create games. Some of these have been validated by research; others are simply possibilities that need further examination and exploration.
The use of videogame making helps students become producers rather than just consumers of information. Research has suggested that videogame playing can help with teaching and learning. In many cases, students are consumers of those products; some videogames, particularly multiplayer games, do allow students to create content. However, videogame development enables students to become producers of content for consumption by others. This process allows them to examine content not just from a learning perspective, but also from the perspective of someone that has to teach it to someone else.
(We encourage teachers also to do their own game making using many of the tools discussed in the next installment in this article series. However, it should not take the place of student development because of the innovative perspective of content it provides students.)
The use of videogame making helps students become subject matter experts.
