Want to Play a Game? Great!
CET Thu Jun 23 2004
Americans love, really love, video games. More than half of Americans
play one each week. The Center for Educational Technologies® is working
to translate that fascination into a better student.
The center, which is located at Wheeling Jesuit
University in Wheeling, WV, specializes in cutting-edge learning research.
Researchers there are examining the learning sciences that go into immersive
3-D games as well as role-playing games. In particular, they’re focusing on
advanced game technologies and their impact and value as learning
environments for the next generation of knowledge workers.
The concept boils down to this: Children love playing
video games, so build new games that help them to learn. The concepts
they’ll be learning will set them up with the skills they’ll need to be the
knowledge workers of the next generation.
“Take a game that lets someone fly a plane across the
surface of Mars,” says Greg Meier, chief executive officer of the center.
“When they learn to fly the plane, they’re learning physics. They’re also
learning about Mars. The learning is imbued in the experience of the game
itself.”
According to the Entertainment Software Association,
30 percent of the most frequent computer game players and 38 percent of the
most frequent console game player were under the age of 18. The next most
frequent user in both areas are people aged 18-35. Sales of entertainment
software games were a record $7 billion in 2003. Clearly, the interest in
gaming is there.
The Center for Educational Technologies is looking at
ways to incorporate actual science and data into these games. The center’s
recent transformation into a university-industry research center can help
accomplish this by bringing together, for example, NASA scientists and
specific industry experts with gaming developers to create advanced
educational games. Another plus is the center’s extensive background in
problem-based learning and constructivist teaching, in which students learn
by tackling an unstructured, real-world problem.
“We think advanced educational games and simulations
are a necessary way to help kids learn science, mathematics, technology, and
engineering—what we call the STEM careers,” Meier said.
While the center might not be creating the games
itself, its expertise in the learning sciences will be a valuable asset to
those in the gaming industry.
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