School Of Warcraft
How do you get groups of boys to be interested in learning? Well rather than forcing traditional learning methods on them, one researcher is using a very popular computer game as a new instrument of education. The computer game in question is none other than my current addiction, World of Warcraft. From an article from Live Science, Constance Steinkuehler is an educational researcher who is studying the postive effects of using WoW to create an engaging learning environment for teen boys. This is just one step in a much larger project dealing with the game and it's audience:
Online fantasy worlds may seem too disconnected from real life to have educational value, but Steinkuehler, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Sean Duncan, her colleague there, have found otherwise. Their earlier work analyzed forum postings on the official WoW Web site, and found that 85 percent of the conversations showed that players had decent levels of scientific literacy. Players used reasoned arguments, backed up hypotheses and even brought statistics to bear on issues that they faced near the higher levels of the game.
So far the experiment has produced positive results with students showing an increased level of reading comprehension and writing skills, as demonstrated by their own conversations in forums. Who'd have thought that forum posts would actually be used to positively support gamer intelligence?
More after the jump
Steinkuehler isn't the only person using WoW as a teaching tool. A group of mothers who home school their children have banded together and created their own guild on the Warcraft servers. This guild is used both to educate in game as well as a social tool allowing kids and parents of a similar background to connect. Kelli Traaseth, a mom involved in the group has had a positive experience and explains what is being taught to her children
"We know several kids who learned to read while playing these games," Traaseth said. "If you want to classify some of the things we're doing when we play World of Warcraft, the list could include math, reading, sociology, economics, creative writing and communications."
While both these experiments are ongoing, so far it looks as if perception is beginning to shift in support of gaming as an effective means of educating young people. I remember that in my own education growing up we were using computers and computer games to supplement our education. Most of these games were actual adventure and strategy games and not traditional edutainment titles. Your views?
World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in School [Live Science]
TheDoctor
Posted to Video Games on 3 October 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: education, teaching, world of warcraft
Their earlier work analyzed forum postings on the official WoW Web site, and found that 85 percent of the conversations showed that players had decent levels of scientific literacy. Players used reasoned arguments, backed up hypotheses and even brought statistics to bear on issues that they faced near the higher levels of the game.
I'm guessing they chose to completely omit the General forums. :)
My brother's reading proficiency and speed went way up from playing console RPGs on my old PS1. All the scrolling text dialog for hours and hours over days and days really helped.