It may come as no surprise that he most popular games on the market are also the most engaging for players, with complicated level structures, multi-players and challenging but attainable goals. A typical gamer can sustain several hours of uninterrupted play without losing interest; quite a different claim from that made by recent studies. It is only once the player turns the game off and interacts with the outside world that the lack of attention kicks in.
What kind of game are your students playing? Are they locked in gladiatorial combat with no control over increasingly unreasonable conditions? Are they competing against each other for favour or are they forging alliances to sustain their own growth? Are they being rewarded with interesting challenges, higher proficiency and better means? Or is each task independent from, yet identical to, the next? These are the indicators of moral climate in your classroom.
Like it or not, interactive gaming platforms are creeping into classrooms at every level of academia. But this “new kid in town” has to earn his chops before the elbow-patch and courderoy crowd… Continue reading
Games, just like any learning exercises, come with a set of values that ultimately teach a moral lesson. This moral doctrine, explicit or implicit, may even differ from the intended pedagogical lesson. Video Games are no exception. Each one secretly teaches a set of values. Yet these lessons are not necessarily in the content or story-line. They live deep in the design of the game and are taught through the system of challenges and rewards offered to the player.
