Gaming's Relevance to Higher Education

The importance in understanding why gaming is relevant to higher education comes with understanding who our college students are. Most of the students entering college today, as well as those coming in tomorrow, were born between 1980 and 2000. This generation is referred to as the Millennial generation. And according to Butterfield and Fox in their article, Preparing for the Millennial Tsunami, "Millennials are gamers, 94 percent of adolescents play videogames for an average of nine hours a week" (2007, May).

To many baby-boomers who grew up on television and saw the crash of the video game industry in the 1980s, video games are nothing more than a fad, with a small following that many will grow out of. Unfortunately, it is this attitude that is leading to a true generational gap between boomers and a generation that consists of 80% gamers (Beck & Wade, 2004).

This generation did not migrate into the technology of today; they grew up in it. From cable tv, to cell phones, to mp3 players, to the internet, to instant messaging, to video games, this is a generation immersed in media. And it is this media that has helped shaped who they are, especially games. An interviewee from the survey conducted by Beck and Wade was quoted as saying, "Unless you're living in a cave, everyone has played a video game. It's part of our culture" (2004, pp. 6-7).

It is this lack of understanding on our part, as educators, that has helped widen the gap. With parents and teachers having grown up in an age where they migrated into technology, they are finding it difficult to communicate with today's digital students. Our schools were establised and continue to run in system established over a hundred years ago, a system that was not prepared to handle the fast-paced technological student of today (Prensky, 2006). 

So how can we move forward and help bridge this gap that exist? We can start by speaking their "language," and part of that language involves video games. Despite what many may "think" they know about video games, games have much educational potential. In fact, James Paul Gee concludes that "the theory of learning in good video games fits better with the modern, high-tech, global world today's [students] live in than do the theories (and practices) of learning that they see in school" (2003, p. 7).

So what benefits do games actually provide? Keep in mind that not all games are educational in nature, but can be. It comes down to how you implement them. Given that, a good game provides a player:

• the chance to learn through an active, hands-on experience.
• the opportunity to role play and think critically in the environment that exists.
• to problem solve situations that gradually get harder and that adjust to their pace and style of learning.
• the chance to make mistakes, reflect on them and try multiple solutions to solve a single problem.
• immediate feedback to their solutions.
• self-confidence.
• an area for social networking/mentoring.
• the chance to learn in an environment that engages them through multiple modalities.

Prensky summarizes Beck's and Wades' survey of the potential that gamers have over those who are not, listing that gamers (2006, pp. 77-78):

• Are good at collaborative problem solving
• Are committed to professional excellence
• Put a high premium on skill and adding value
• "Have a strong sense of competence"
• "See the world through the lens of competition
• Have both highly developed teamwork skills and the desire to be part of a team
• Care about their organization
• Love data
• Are comfortable taking measured risks
• Multi-task well
• Learn on the fly
• Think globally
• Don't count on fixed organizational structures
• Expect themselves to actually deliver.

In conclusion, times and students have changed; educational institutions have not. It's time to bridge the gap between instructor and student and start speaking the "language" of the new student. It is time to get our "game on."

Historical Background of Gaming 

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Relevance to education

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Glossary of Terms

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Start-up Costs

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Key-players, gurus, experts

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Sample Lesson Plans

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Tutorial

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Sources 

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