Week 5- My personal thoughts and reflections.... Electronic Games

This week I read some articles on electronic games and learning. I found this experience to be a real eye-opener. I have to admit I was one of those people that often viewed electronic games as something that distracted children from learning rather than being a rich source of learning. Prensky (2003) raises some very valid points- children learn when they are motivated and in order to be motivated children need to be engaged. Computer games seem to be able to do this. They have the ability to make children interested, cooperative, competitive, results oriented and encouraged to seek information and solutions. Futhermore while playing these games children learn to absorb information from multiple sources, make quick decisions, deduce the rules on their own, think strategically and understand complex systems (Prensky 2003).

However it's also interesting to note that according to Kirriemuir and McFarlane (2006) most educational games fail to realise expectations because they are often too simplistic, the tasks are repetitive and they do not support progressive understanding.

What I take from all of this is that there are many skills to be gained by children from playing electronic games. In an education context however if these games are to be utilised in the classroom some careful thought will need to be given as to how they are developed.

References:

Prensky, M. (2003). Digital Game-Based Learning. ACM Computers in Entertainment 1(1), 1-4

Kirriemuir, J. & McFarlane, A. (2006). Learning through Games. NESTA futurelab REPORT 8 Literature Review in Games and Learning.