Week Three Post: Gaming in the Classroom?

I was initially quite skeptical about the idea of incorporating video games into the classroom, particularly in my content area of English. With an already overstuffed curriculum and panic about standardized testing running high, it initially seemed that video games would be at odds with our goals as high school teachers. But then I remembered something from one of my foundations classes in education—students struggle because the things we ask them to do in school are so different from the things they do outside of school. In other words, their school life is not compatible with their home life, so they become disengaged because they fail to see the purpose of traditional academics. Though savvy teachers attempt to remedy this problem through incorporating blogs, wikis, etc., into their classroom, the school/home gap still exists. Perhaps video games are another way to bring students’ out-of-school interests into the classroom.

I began to ponder my own interactions with video games in school. Certainly, today’s video game environment is a different world entirely when compared to the video games that were around during my own k-12 education. Nevertheless, as a student I occasionally experienced video games in school, and not surprisingly, they immediately engaged me. Here are a few examples from my seemingly distant past, circa the mid-90s:

Number Munchers (and occasionally the lesser-known Grammar/Word Munchers):



Number Munchers made math fun for even the most resistant student. Scary green monsters attack as you solve math problems, racing the clock. In terms of teaching math, this game solves a huge problem that I have noticed in math classrooms. Moreso than any other classroom in my opinion, a huge dichotomy exists between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” meaning those who like/are “good at” math and those who dislike/struggle with math. As a result, comparing oneself to one’s peers in terms of skill level is a constant occurrence in the math classroom. I like the idea of Number Munchers because it takes the student-to-student competition out of math and gives attention to the individual. Sure, students could compare their scores. As a teacher, though, in the end I would think that student confidence could only benefit when they begin to think of math as “student versus imaginary green monster” rather than “student versus student.” Since students know immediately whether they have been categorized by their peers in class as “good at math” or “bad at math,” as a teacher I fear that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone else thinks that a student is “bad at math,” why should he/she think any differently? Perhaps Number Munchers could give those students a sense of achievement in a challenging subject area. Perhaps this game is a precursor to the “math and literacy” game that was discussed in the readings for this week.

The Original Oregon Trail:

In middle school, I remember it being such a huge deal when the social studies classes got to go to the computer lab to play the original Oregon Trail game. Though I don’t remember it being a particularly educational experience (I remember hunting for buffalo in the game, crossing rivers in the covered wagon, planning a month of departure, and naming your fellow trailblazers, but nothing with historical significance), I am sure that some information about the real Oregon Trail or Lewis and Clark or something seeped in through osmosis. Nevertheless, the game succeeded in getting students excited about going to their social studies classes for the day, and perhaps that is reason enough to include it in school. If students become accustomed to feeling excited about their classes, then engagement in actual curricula can’t be far behind.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing:


Though most of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing consists of highly repetitive drills and practices, which fail to engage many students, the “gaming” part of the experience was highly memorable for me. I remember a racing game in which the students race against another (computer operated) driver on a freeway. The graphics were crude, but the students loved it. The faster and more accurately the students type, the faster their car travels and the more likely they are to defeat their automated opponent. Like Number Munchers, this game motivates students to succeed in a specific task that is directly related to the content area.

In terms of the readings for this week, I thought that the gender studies perspectives were particularly interesting. The three games that I discussed above are all pretty gender-neutral, which I think is kind of appropriate for educational games. However, I wonder if the gender neutrality of these games prevents the sort of “identity building” that helps students become engrossed in the gamespace and really connect with the world of the game, and thus the content. I was not surprised by the “male gaze” nature of the video games described in the readings, since the core audience for video games is young males, but nevertheless the authors made some serious points about gender in games, particularly if we are to incorporate them into the classroom. I still need to think more about how I would integrate video games into an English classroom, which is my content area, but I think it would be worthwhile. Even assigning projects such as having students design certain aspects of a video game, such as characters, settting, plot, climax, etc., would engage students while still meeting the standards and benchmarks of the National Council for Teachers of English. It is definitely food for thought.