I've seen how people train dogs by giving them treats after saying a word and making them sit then giving them a treat. I've also noticed how I am trained to raise my hand and sit down after entering a classroom and I recieve a good grade for doing that, so I continue. (except in this case, the good grade is always rewarded unlike the treat) My question is, do you think video games could be used to teach things like that also? And if you think it can then do you think that you can make it so they use the lesson in real life as well.
I have to agree with most of the people here. I don't think we have to start teaching through video games, I think we are already doing it. I've learned so much and have learned to think in ways I would never have thought of because of them.
I've taken a lot from games, but it's not stuff you can learn from book pages or a teacher's words, its the kind of stuff you have to just grab from the grime-covered lands of Video Games. I've learned what Art really is, how to create moments that will leave the strongest of men sobbing, what it means to construct a character, and of course, Bioshock has refined my Capitalistic beliefs to a perfect shine.
Can we learn through games? Sure. You can stick a kid in front of The Bible Game and he'll tell you that jonah got eaten by a whale, but the lessons that shape what a person is, we can take from Games.
But i'm not saying trying to teach things which you would learn in school through video games, I'm saying to teach someone something through a videogame that becomes almost a reflex, like if you're thirsty, then drink something, very basic.
I think that you COULD teach something through a video game, but the problem would be that it would have to be very repetative and would probably have to have the gammer not notice it to become a reflex and not a consious thought.
but the problem would be that it would have to be very repetative and would probably have to have the gammer not notice it to become a reflex and not a consious thought.
It would be something like pressing the A button when an icon flashes. Eventually it becomes instinctive. Kind of like when a soldier for 20+ years hears an air raid siren test during peacetime and hits the dirt. If you wanted them to take a drink on command (when you hear x sound, take a sip), eventually they'll hear the sound and be taking a drink before they realized they were supposed to take a drink. But it's difficult (near impossible) to teach someone to do something without stimuli. There needs to be something to react to. Sure you could show someone looking both ways before crossing a street in a game, but then the players are just consciously immitating it in real life instead of it being instinctive.
If you wanted them to take a drink on command (when you hear x sound, take a sip), eventually they'll hear the sound and be taking a drink before they realized they were supposed to take a drink.
Couldn't u do that in a game? Like whenever I hear the sound like what the Manhacks makes, I instinctivley go into a kindof fight mode, so it can work, it just has to be drilled into you, like with the air raid siren.
Perhaps every time you approach a road on the screen in the game, you should turn your head left and right in real life to practice for looking both ways before crossing the street? The problem with that is kids wouldn't know what to look out for unless it was an Imax kind of game where you could really watch out for cars. Then it could work.
Ok I saw this thread and I thought"Is he going to talk about the games that teache us how to read, do math, etc. need to be made for older kids to love learning and playing the learning games?" But apparently it is about should they(the game designers) make games that teach. People already do that in fact 1,000's of kindergarner's through probably 2nd grade play this game system called leap frog. What game designers need to do is make games, that teach, for the older kids to have fun with.
I think an Imax style Final Destination-esque safety game would teach some life lessons. Perhaps if you fail to physically turn your head to look both ways and make sure it's safe before crossing the street, your character gets hit by a bus (blood settings could be switched off for when kids play) and you start over. You're baking something in the oven. If you try to take it out without equipping an oven mitt, you get badly burned (although that's kind of something you need to feel yourself to truly understand why touching something extremely hot is a bad thing. Maybe you get shocked on the hand in real life?). If you take something without physically asking politely first, you get shocked in the hand (or maybe the controler vibrates, but that's boring).
People already do that in fact 1,000's of kindergarner's through probably 2nd grade play this game system called leap frog.
This isn't about the games for learning math/reading. It's about teaching life lessons or things that aren't taught in school.
What game designers need to do is make games, that teach, for the older kids to have fun with.
Have fun learning about how y=mx+b? Woohoo we made a line!
