Video Games: The New Textbooks
Brock Dubbels, a guest blogger on Education Futures, encourages teachers to use video games in classroom instruction. Dubbels, an 8th grade English teacher from Minneapolis, also teaches a course at the University of Minnesota called "Video Games as Tools for Educators." He believes the latest games, which create rich environments for students to interact with, can be valuable educational tools.
If you are playing as a doctor, you will do the things that doctors do. And as you are acting like a doctor, the game gives you clues to achieve a win-state, in the form of feedback and performance assessment…
The big idea here is that games represent an opportunity to be in a role, doing things that people in those roles do, in places where they do them, and then get assessed in that performance.
Although he says textbooks have a place in the classroom, Dubbels thinks games are better teaching resources because they provide students with a hands-on experience.
Textbooks are great, but limited in what they can present…
We should be moving beyond the static curriculum of textbooks. Games can provide the context and action for our content knowledge in a situated context— [it's] almost as good as being there.
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Comments
I love this idea and have been trying to incorporate it in my class already. I'm writing a book on using web-based technology for class assignments, and video strategies is a big part of it. Thanks for this insightful blog.
Posted by: Bell Work Online Staff | July 31, 2007 10:54 AM
Drop me a line of you would like some help putting together a games unit. I have done with multiple grades and content areas. Thank you for posting this Stacy.
Brock
Posted by: Brock Dubbels | August 1, 2007 1:56 AM
You have got to be kidding me. If i recall, state tests do not implement or utilize any type of "video games" in order to pass a state test. When an educator's job is on the line, I sure hope he or she sticks to the fundamentals of reading, writing, and factual knowledge. I realize that textbooks don't always engage the student and that we live in a technology age, but if a student can't read what are his or her chances in passing the test? Yes, it is all about state test and the money those scores provide. Ideally, we as educators would love to do our own thing, but state mandated testing pulls the education train nowdays.
Posted by: Dgsos | August 2, 2007 2:10 PM
So far good discussions points from both sides of the topic. I would like to suggest that we try and meet in the middle of this. What if, we came up with a video game called "Who Wants To Be Ranked #1 in Their Class?". The content of the video game would include the subjects, work assignments, quizzes and tests for each course in the curriculum. The player (student) would actually play the ROLE of student.
From Grade 1 through 12 there is no other role that a student needs to play than "student". Without the basics and hopefully some advanced courses, our "students" will not be able to play in any other role in the real world.
Posted by: kc | August 16, 2007 7:15 AM