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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Games As Stealth Learning Tools? 30

Posted by simoniker from the subliminal-intelligence-boosting dept.
Thanks to the Chronicle Of Higher Education for their transcript on 'Video Games in the Classroom', chronicling a video Q+A with Professor James Gee, following his earlier article on the same subject. A number of interesting points are raised - to the question of "Where's the research that shows that games... improve application of logical reasoning [or cause] increased sensitivity to moral issues?", the professor suggests: "I would not want to claim that 'video games have positive effects,' but rather that 'video games used in different ways have different effects'." The concept of 'stealth learning' is also discussed - Gee says that "Learning works best when the learners are so caught up in their goals that they don't realize they are learning, or how much they are learning, or where they actively seek new learning inside and outside the game."
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Games As Stealth Learning Tools? More

Games As Stealth Learning Tools?

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  • Top of the class (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Learning works best when the learners are so caught up in their goals that they don't realize they are learning, or how much they are learning, or where they actively seek new learning inside and outside the game."

    *HEADSHOT*

    *ULTRA KILL*

    *HUMILIATION*

    What can I say...i'm a f@ckin genius.
  • Warning: Use of this game may cause undesired learning and uncontrolled thought in children. Parental guidance is advised.
    • Heh, yeah, that would an undesirable effect for the US - how dare anyone cause them to learn anything! Might look smarter than the prez... OH! Look out, the HSD is on the way...

      But seriously, I can imagine that some aspects of games can train certain reflexes. Perhaps we pay more attention to small movements in peripheral vision now than before (as it is very important to survival in some games). An explorer class in Earth & Beyond needs to be able to haul ass if creatures 3-10 times their strength
      • Quoth fehlschlag

        "But seriously, I can imagine that some aspects of games can train certain reflexes..."

        "Wow, the implications: if cars could strafe (and maybe had rubber protective side plates) we'd have some wild and wacky traffic situations. :)"

        Don't joke about this! After playing SSX Tricky for a couple of hours I remembered that I need to get some things from the supermarket. As I was driving along, I saw a slight bump in the road and started thinking "I could probably get a 360 rotation off tha

        • Lol, did you miss the warning label (on some slip of paper that fell to the side as you ripped open the package):
          Real traffic situations may not behave in the same manner as with this game. Your mileage may vary.

          Back in the days I was learning to drive my Dad's old buick on old dirt roads in the woods, I freaked out my sister by moving the wheel back and forth and exclaiming: It's just like a video game!" Hehe. She just screamed something like: ...but you don't get any extra lives!

          I really think most

  • Too deep for chat (Score:2, Insightful)

    by RobotWisdom ( 25776 )
    I don't think the topic here really worked in chat format-- the answers had to be hasty and superficial. It's a great candidate for a Slashdot-style Q&A, though.
    • I started asking myself what question I'd pose in a Slashdot q&a, and realised it's one that wouldn't likely get a high rating, so i'll pose it here:

      Most(?) of the educational advantages of games seem related to the fact that they're simulations, but sims are usually educational even if they're not games.

      I see simulation as a new stage of the scientific method in general-- we can test our hypotheses best by simulating them. But in the social sciences, this implies a pretty complete rejection of all 2

      • It's perfectly fine that people have to start from scratch much of the time.

        All that means is that we're coming up with new approaches for modeling the world.

        If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and all that. Humans are pretty good at telling whether something is "realistic" or not. True, a simulation might fall through some crack in the realism heuristics-- it might appear to be more "realistic" than a better model and might therefore win out over the better model in terms of human observation.
      • There is a free game sponsored by the WWF called Save the Leopard!/A. It's an economical/ecological simulator about some saving some sort of Leopard in Siberia (a real issue nowdays).

        According to earlier interviews, the WWF planned to look into the strategies of the best players to apply them in the real world.

  • Greetings, Starfighter! (Score:3, Funny)

    by chumpieboy ( 257469 ) <esojka AT spamcop DOT net> on Thursday August 28, 2003 @09:18AM (#6813023)
    Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada
  • It just remember me all the chattering about "TV isn't all evil" I heard as a child... it was some time ago indeed (sigh) and my teachers were of the first generation who really grew up with Television...
    • Indeed. Remember The Electric Company? It made learning fun, and you didn't even REALIZE that you were learning. I haven't been able to find anything much like that these days. Sesame Street can't hold the attention of my 5 year old nephew, unlike Spongebob. And the only thing that Spongebob has taught him is that he can roll his eyes up into his head and see his brain.

      You need a license to own a dog, but any fool can have a child.
  • Were both excellent classroom games when I was in grade school. Everyone *loved* playing them, and they both had that stealth learning experience...one under the guise of an arcade game, the other strategy.

    I'm not sure about the "moral sensitivity" parth though. I suppose I learned that you could only carry 100lbs of meat back to the wagon, but that didn't really stop me from shooting every buffalo on sight.

  • From the headline, I thought this would be about kids running around like Solid Snake and Sam Fisher. You know, hiding behind things, throwing cans, knocking on walls.
    But, I think video games do teach problem solving, and in some cases, team work.

    • Re:Headline Confusion (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Scene: Teacher sitting at her desk checking papers
      Student enters room, crawling on the floor
      Student throws an empty can towards the back of the room
      Teacher: I heard something.
      Teacher goes to investigate
      Student takes teachers grade book and changes his 70s to 90s
      Student looks around
      Student leaves Claymore mine in teachers seat.
      Student retreates from the room.
      Teacher sees mine
      Teacher: !
    • The Military even did a test where they had some people play "Medal of Honor" for 2 weeks and then compared their skills at detecting stuff on a radar screen with those who didn't play video games. And do I have to tell you who scored higher? No. Video games are fun. And fun's what matters, right?
  • ...I thought we were training children to be sneaky and hide in shadows, a la Splinter Cell

  • Problem based learning and knowledge transfer (Score:4, Informative)

    by neglige ( 641101 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @01:32PM (#6815858)
    Learning with games is basically "problem based learning" as advocated by the constructivistic learning theory. The game creates a problem and leaves the solution up to the player. The more realistic the problem is, and the more freedom the player has for the solution, the better is the learning result. Sims like "Capitalism" or "SimCity" are good examples for this.

    Studies show that students have problems applying knowledge to real problems (knowledge transfer) when the knowledge has been acquired by "traditional" learning processes, e.g. sitting in class and listening to a teacher. Learning with realistic problems (case studies) eases the transfer process. So if you are about to plan a city, "SimCity" would help you much better than "Age of Empires". Even though the latter has some aspects of placing buildings, "SimCity" is closer to the real problem.

    I'm sure this is not a perfect example, but right now I can't think of a better one. Hopefully it's sufficient ;)

    • So if you are about to plan a city, "SimCity" would help you much better than "Age of Empires".

      A graduate degree in architectural history, historic preservation, history, anthropology, with some appropiate specialization would help even more.

      On a serious note, I find it sinister to think that game developers could have some hidden educational incentive. Are players of violent video games [apa.org] more likely to support US foreign policy?

      • game developers could have some hidden educational incentive

        Hmm... Anything you do creates knowledge. You can not influence that. And yes, if a developer is aware of this, and has the necessary psychological background, the game can in fact - under certain circumstances - alter your beliefs/values.

        This does not mean that after playing "SimCity" you want to live in a city, or that after playing "Zeus" or "Cleopatra" you will start to worship greek or egyptian gods. But you will know who Zeus is. And -
  • I haven't fully investigated how factual the history in the Journeyman Project games (notably the second and third instalments) but they were a lot of fun. Not only did they have a rich visual world and a compelling storyline, but one of the best aspects for me was the witty AI companion you picked up called Arthur, who when prompted gave interesting comments on some object or the place you were in. I think games in this style would be great for opening kids' minds to learning about history as well as maybe

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