Digital Game- Based Learning: It’s Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless

Implementing learning games into the classroom has been attempted since the ’70s with little success. This article outlines some of the reasons for this failure by society to properly implement gaming into the classroom. Part was the development of learning games that did a great job of teaching content but failed in engaging students beyond a few attempts at the game. Another problem that faced advocates for game-based learning was that there was a lack of games that kept kids engaged and that it was hard to get game developers to start making them due to the dismal failure of learning games in the ‘80s and ‘90s. So how can teachers integrate games in the classroom? A few options were outlined in the article. Teachers could develop the games themselves with the help of the students in their classrooms. This would help them get a library of useful games while at the same time teaching students content. Next was having the educators develop the material themselves. And last was using the games that were already available in the stores and adapting them to your curriculum. The last option seemed the most feasible because it would offer the most engaging situation for the students and at the same time left the teacher lee-way in how he or she taught the class or used the software. Our author comes back to proper implementation and use of games in classrooms as the key to getting this digital revolution off the ground. Tech support, teacher training, and proper alignment with the curriculum are all important in making sure that a schools attempt to use games as a pedagogical tool does not fail. Choosing the proper game is also paramount, do not use a game that has little relevancy in your classroom just because you are excited about gaming as a teaching tool. It will most certainly fail and your students will learn little. The article warns that most games you will use in your curriculum will have gaps in the information that is given to the students, it will be your job as a teacher to fill in those gaps.

Gaming in the classroom seems to me that it could be very useful in many subjects. However, as an English teacher I fail to see how it could be properly used in my classroom while retaining its effectiveness as a tool for engaging the students. Most likely I would end up with a game that faultered on having too little educational prowess, or too much entertainment at the expense of content. I am not ruling out the possibility of using games in my classroom, but I will have to be thoroughly convinced of the games ability to be both engaging and useful as a tool for learning. The article does not cover one topic that I found interesting. It leaves out students who do not play video games. As much as we like to believe that every child out there sits in front of a video game console from the moment they leave school it is just not true. Many students would have a hard time getting the handle of the controls in a game and this might hinder their learning experience. The only solution I can come up with for this problem is to pair students up and have the less dexterous students coupled with the seasoned gamers. The point of gaming is to get the content across, this does not mean that every student needs to be a gamer to get good grades.