Reality Check 04.18.09: School of Gaming

Posted by Alexandra Pusateri on 04.18.2009

In this week's Reality Check, Alexandra Pusateri explores the world of educational gaming.

I hope you've had a good week! Mine's been way too busy and not enough relaxation. Luckily, it's the weekend and you get your weekly dosage of Reality Check. (And we know how expensive those prescriptions are.) I'm your host, Alexandra Pusateri.

I usually like to start off Reality Check by letting you know the purpose of these articles, and this week is no exception. I want to express how video games are bleeding into reality. I'm not saying that the lines between reality and virtual reality are blurring; I'm just saying that video games do affect the outside world, negatively and positively. This week, I tackle video games being used as an educational tool.

Almost a year ago, Paul Spoerry published a list on his blog: 25 Best Sims and Games for the Classroom. In it, he names video games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and some that you may not think of when you think "educational."

In February of last year, the Game Developers Conference featured a panel called "Being Brian Crecente," where University of Minnesota's Nora Paul spoke about a game mod for Neverwinter Nights they were using to help teach their students about journalism. Brian Crecente, for those of you who are unaware, is the managing editor for Kotaku. By fusing together video games and journalism, Paul was able to churn out a game that, in a sense, was educational. "The course objectives [were] to teach information gathering, synthesis and analysis," Paul said to Crecente. "We wanted the game to let them practice [journalism] and find out the implications of their choices."

The game takes place in Harperville, where there's been a chemical spill from a train derailing. The players are journalists, gathering information and interviewing witnesses in order to piece together the story to publish. When interviewing sources, if the players are too abrasive, the interviewee could stop the conversation by saying, "Excuse me, I don't like your attitude." These kinds of investigative reporting skills are taught through the game, albeit loosely.

This type of educational gaming is still in early stages, but could immensely change the way universities teach. But thanks to lack of funding – since a top-notch game usually is budgeted in the millions – these educational games are missing the fundamental part of developments.

The Sims is an example of a game teaching architecture, interior design, writing, and social interactions.

The Sims is a well-rounded example of a game that was released without the educational tagline, but could turn out that way. In just one example, Scribblers Abode helps players with their writing skills, using their Sims to write stories. Screenshots of their Sims help tell the story, but the feature is the story written by the player. Constructive criticism and tips are given on Scribblers Abode's forums. A better front-end example would be that The Sims was originally supposed to be an architectural simulation, with the virtual people only there to survey the houses.

Back in 1999, The Franklin in Philadelphia had a website about SimCity 2000. One page described how children at Erving Elementary School in Erving, MA, were being taught with the game. "As the mayor of their individual cities, they learn what factors impact on the success or failure a city and how these factors interact," the website reads. "They learn the practical values of patience, thrift, planning and balancing the competing demands on municipal funds."

SimCity has been used as a teaching tool in the past.

Will Wright described his simulation games as "software toys," ones that you couldn't win or lose. As these games have educational elements to it, does that say something to those who are aiming – or trying too hard – to get children learning through their games?

A year later, in 2000, the BBC came out with a story about how video games were considered educational tools, using a study from Dr. David Lewis. "In future it would be good to see specially designed educational video games that communicate factual information in an exciting and involving manner," Lewis told the BBC. "These would be especially helpful to teenagers turned off by formal classroom teaching requiring a lot of reading."

As video games – and technology in general – become widely adapted by younger audiences, it seems we'll always be on a quest for an enjoyable educational game. "Early attempts at ‘educational games' were a pretty bland attempt to use the game environment for education," Nora Paul said in 2006, when it may have seemed that we were well on our way to bringing video games into the classrooms as a mainstream tool.

How do you feel? Do you think that video games being dubbed "educational" automatically make them boring? Have you had any experiences with educational video games?