However, when students see mistakes as iterations toward success, they are more likely to hit a state of flow in their work. Learning is fun when students get to chase their curiosity or geek on their favorite topics in a Genius Hour Project. Learning is fun when they solve challenging problems, make sense out of the past, conduct their own experiments, or get lost in fictional world. This game doesn’t need to explicitly teach players about the laws of supply and demand — they can see these concepts in action, in real-time.
As many teachers have proven through their own successful classroom use of video games, the correct portion of a game – used in an appropriate way – is helpful. Having goals to work towards can give that same sense of achievement as winning that boss battle. And happy people celebrate their successes and accomplishments in life, just like when we’re awarded in video games and level-up. In 2021, researchers looked at children that were undergoing chemotherapy. To find ways to help them, these patients were given video games, drawing, or storytelling with a control group that received no additional activity. Those that played video games rated their increase in happiness the highest.
The puzzle of play
This is how I came to unwrap Ten Things Video Games Can Teach Us (About Life, Philosophy and Everything) by Jordan Erica Webber and Daniel Griliopoulos. Books are a risky thing to give as gifts because they, like video games, require an investment of time. You don’t throw them on calloused feet like a sock or slap them about your tired face like an aftershave. Or vice versa depending on the smell of your feet or coldness of your face. Through self-assessment, peer feedback, and teacher feedback, students gain a deeper understanding of their progress.
“Grand Theft Auto 3 does not exist to get off on shooting people,” he says. When the game begins, your character has just been released from jail. You need to figure out how to make a living, but the only people you know are criminals.
They don’t usually have a theme in the sense that a novel has a theme. One of the key lessons in Flow Theory is that people are more likely to hit a state of flow when there is a high challenge and a high perceived skill level. However, when these match, students are more likely to hit a state of flow. Kids who play games with a purpose (that is, to spend quality with friends and family, learn something new, or improve a skill) are able to activate their gameful strengths in real-world contexts.
Too often, we, as teachers, prevent these close failures. In some cases, we provide too much scaffolding and we prevent these close failures that can actually lead to deeper student engagement. As I pick up Minecraft (much slower than anticipated and am being constantly reprimanded by the little teacher), some key things I realize that these video games are building in them. Commercial games, especially, are designed for profit and not for the classroom, the curriculum or education. And for the “traditionalists” still bitter at the loss of slate and chalk, these bright and loud digital games represent all that is wrong in the modern world.
Jonathan Truitt is a member of Central Michigan University’s history faculty. He shared his expertise on the role games have historically played in education and was featured on a recent episode of CMU’s podcast The Search Bar. It’s worth asking ourselves what skills are more commonly needed today. Games should be evolving towards teaching us those skills. But the drawback with games as thought experiments for me is that this wasn’t a remotely challenging decision. As a gamer I knew saving Koris would result in a better outcome than keeping his tiny crew alive.
However, I think there are elements of game design that we might want to consider as we think about instructional design. And one of those unexpected places might just be the world of video games. There’s a great Hidden Brain episode that demonstrates a counterintuitive reality that people are often more motivated right after a near-success than they are after a huge failure or a success.
The case studies, examples and proof are there; let the games begin. Laurie Trueblood is a writer and life coach that enjoys fantasy, science, psychology, and everything nerdy. As the founder of Adventures to Authenticity, her mission is to help others level up and become the best versions of themselves. Like the previous one on chemotherapy patients, several recent studies have connected gaming and relaxation. Several studies have linked gaming to reducing symptoms of anxiety. And while gaining a sense of calm may be far from the fist-pumping excitement of victory, both contribute to a sense of happiness.
I wonder what it would mean to craft more assignments and projects in a way that game quiz students could articulate their own progress without having to stop what they are doing. But no gamer wants to profess ignorance of gaming principles in front of his fellow gamers. On the one hand, there’s still a lot more to learn about how video games really affect us.
Video Games teach us a lot !
Game-based learning is an active learning technique that uses games to improve student learning. The learning, in this case, comes from playing the game, which promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Game-based learning can be achieved through digital or non-digital games and simulations that allow students to experience the learning firsthand. How can we embrace these lessons from gaming and happiness?
To anyone watching a game of Halo, it might seem like a bunch of people running around and shooting without a real goal apart from hoping to kill enemies. However, this game is actually very organized and strategic, the players precisely react to each other and the environment. As well as you need good hand-eye-coordination, which can also be very useful in the day to day life. In Halo you need to pay attention to the smallest of details, a single pixel can make the difference between life and death, as dramatic as that might sound.
Gaming for gains
It may not seem as fun as fighting dragons and magic, but you may be surprised that it’s not just gaming that brings joy. By finding what makes you happy while playing video games that you can embrace throughout your life. But there is growing evidence that some types of video games may improve brain performance on a narrow set of tasks. This is potentially good news for students, as well as for the millions of people who love to play, or at least can’t seem to stop playing (see infographic). It’s important to note that the image of video gamers as socially isolated individuals playing in the lonely darkness of their bedrooms is misleading.