Why schools should embrace video games instead of banning them

Recently I answered a colleague who asked on a question on the Texas Library Association Listserv regarding our library policies about video gaming. When she reported back on her findings it turned out that I was the only one that encouraged or supported gaming. Some respondents talked about allowing "only educational or approved games," and others said they tried allowing gaming until it "got out of hand."  Most just banned games on library computers.

I'm actually sympathetic to these viewpoints. At times the gamers make a little more noise than I am comfortable with, and the computers in the library are limited, so it seems wrong to have game players taking over computers of those that want to do "real work." Furthermore, I myself wasted far too many hours of my youth (not to mention my hard earned money one quarter at a time) on video games. As a mature adult, that no longer "wastes time" on video games, I sometimes I wished I would have learned a 2nd language instead of practicing my alien-slaying skills. Did all of those hours of joystick jostling pay off in any way? The truth is, I'm not sure.

One thing that is different more than 2 decades later after my Atari saturated childhood is that video games are much more sophisticated and much more a part of the culture. They involve much more problem solving instead of mere hand-eye coordination. Video Games allow for creativity and open-ended exploration of virtual environments. Virtual reality, 3-D graphics, simulations...These are all entire industries now. Don't we want some of our students to prepare themselves for jobs in these fields?    Games also teach valuable leadership and collaboration skills.  We are in favor of those, right?

So, reservations aside, I'm going to argue that a permissive policy on video games is far better than a restrictive one.  Here's how it all worked out for me this year.

During the very first weeks of school, many students had not yet discovered the library. Those that did were overwhelmingly interested in a game called Minecraft. In the opening scenes of the game, it's a violent struggle for survival. Monsters, shooting... you get the picture. My instincts told me that I didn't want this stuff in the library, lest the administration see it and reprimand me for allowing such stuff to go on at school. However, I overrode my instincts. Instead of telling the boys to quit that game in favor of something more wholesome, I decided to ask the students to tell me about the game and why they enjoyed it. They all talked about the creativity that the game allowed.  I spent quite a lot of time watching the game and listening to them. As the year went on, the boys got into more and more advanced levels of the game and I could actually see what they were talking about.

Then, just recently I was glancing at my Twitter feed and the word "Minecraft" jumped out at me. It was a story from @edtweeps about a school in Oklahoma that uses the game for simulations in an Agriculture class. Wow! I did some more digging on Twitter and found @MinecraftTeachr who teaches in a virtual school and uses MineCraft as his learning space. He has over 4,000 followers.  It turns out there are Education modules for Minecraft.

I started asking the Mine Craft boys at school about their feelings about using Mine Craft for their school projects. They were all convinced that this would be a great thing for them. Today I spoke with one of the parents of these students, and she sung the praises of Mine Craft, and it's potential in educational value. I'm now looking for ways to collaborate with the Geography teachers to encourage Mine Craft as a tool for Project Based Learning.

Ok, so let's review. If I would have banned unapproved video games, I wouldn't even know about Mine Craft. Secondly, it's engaging to the kids and it encourages them to work together. Thirdly, the parents (at least a small sample) expect their kids to learn the 21st Century way. How, under these conditions can one ban games such as Minecraft?

Stay tuned for a future post where I will argue that Social Media and Games must be included in Librarian's defense of Intellectual Freedoms. It's not just about banned books anymore!

What really is the problem we are trying to solve?

Nothing like a good conference to revive my professional soul, not to mention this blog! ISTE 2010 was wonderful, not just for the stimulating sessions, but just to be in rooms filled with hundreds of kindred spirits. I'm now motivated to begin anew.

So, what is the problem we (Ed Tech proponents) are trying to solve? As much as I loved ISTE, I don't know if we really know the answer or the question. Technology is only effective if applied strategically towards a very specific objective. Can technology simultaneously solve the problems of bored, under-achieving students, over-burdened teachers, test-obsessed administrators, and a stagnant culture in public education? My guess is we are not going to see progress by leaps and bounds this year or next year, or in any year unless we clearly identify the problem and plot a way forward using the appropriate technologies.

I see the big question as "Can technology transform education the way it has transformed virtually all other industries and sectors of government?" Think of such specific industries such as journalism, advertising and entertainment. Each of these fields has been turned up-side-down by technology, yet education continues along with its tremendous inertia. Heck, even the Post Office has been dramatically changed by technology.

So what will be the killer App that induces some good old American creative destruction on the education establishment? One thing I know for certain, is that hardware initiatives such as 1-1 Laptops don't in themselves change education. If the basic workflow and teaching practices endure after the technology is implemented, then we aren't much further ahead. Worse yet, if progressive administrators that pursue these costly programs can't show measurable results, we end up taking more steps backward then forward.

It seems to me that the main purpose of technology is to make things dramatically more efficient and dynamic. This means that technology has to liberate teachers from the stifling drudgery of having to manage attendance, discipline, parental contacts, assessment and instructional preparation on a daily basis. Technology has to make all of this easier. Today, online curricula seem to make preparing for daily lessons more difficult. Let's start with this so that the online curriculum is merged with everything else, including video, e-texts, online collaborative research assignments and even video-conferencing. It goes without saying that attendance, discipline, photocopying, transparency making and all the other administrivia should be made effortless by technology, but the technology really needs to free up the teachers so they can be expected to put everything into student relationships, coaching and motivation. Now let's get busy and make it happen.