Video Games Start to Shape Classroom Curriculum

This news feature article profiles the use of video games as curricular tools in United States (US) classrooms. According to the article, "video games are now winning over many middle- and high-school teachers as a way to inspire kids to learn." Marc Prensky, an author who writes on learning through information and communication technology, states that "[l]ess than 1 percent of schools teach through video games." In addition, according to the article, there is much debate on how to use them.

Some of the curricular ideas cited include:
*Reading Homer while playing Sega’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” to better understand Odysseus’s quest.
*Using Creative Assembly’s “Rome: Total War,” a real-time strategy game that lets players assume the roles of ancient generals, for a comparison of video game battle depictions to historical evidence.
*Using the idea of the once popular Tamagotchi virtual pets for a mobile biology game that helps players learn about evolution as they nurture their virtually created pets in a simulated world that includes predators and climate change.

A game-centric school requiring a new teaching philosophy is being proposed for the New York City (New York, US) school system. "Traditional school activities – for example, converting fractions into decimals – will be presented as quests that are part of a larger game, which could last days or weeks to unravel."

A director of a games and learning research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wants games incorporated into curricula in ways that get game skills into classrooms. However, standardised testing is now the required measure of student learning in the US, which has, in the opinion stated here, "forced teachers to push facts, not skills." According to one teacher who supports the use of games in his classroom, “It’s a qualitatively different exercise with games. Game play is like reading and critiquing, and game design is like writing your own [historical account].”