It has been a difficult road, but I can finally sit here and say… “My name is Travis Showers, and I am a gamer.” Board, card, video or physical – if there is a goal, quest or mission, I am more interested, more motivated, and more likely to return again and again to try to “beat” the game.
At my most avid gaming stage, I played World of Warcraft (yes, I am a nerd and proud of it!) and amassed a
total online time of over five months, spread out over the five years I played.
I do wonder what I could have accomplished with an extra month each year, but I
enjoyed the game and learned that just because it is a game doesn’t mean you
can’t learn from it. Kids, pay attention: This could be your chance to squeeze
a bit more technology time out of your parents!
Games are not all created equal, and it is up to the parents
– and the kids – to find the value in the game. As I mentioned, I was very
involved in World of Warcraft, but I
have also dabbled with Minecraft, and
I will be using Minecraft as my game
of choice for this article because my fifth- and sixth-graders are playing it,
like, all the time. So without further ado….
“Turn off the
computer!” … “But Mom, I am learning!”
Problem solving
Minecraft is about
building, crafting and surviving. This
can be as simple as creating a box to live in so the monsters leave you alone
at night, or as complicated as building a walled city complete with lights,
fountains, crops and shops. The choices are up to the player, but without a
plan, players will quickly become stuck and lose interest. How are you going to
feed and clothe yourself? What kind of house do you want to live in? How will
you protect yourself from danger? Sound familiar? That’s right: They’re the
same challenges we face every day!
Research
When I played World of
Warcraft, I listened to podcasts, visited blogs, and had a binder of
references on quests, creatures, dungeons, equipment and skills. I spent almost
as much time learning about the game from sources outside the game as I did
playing the game. After stepping into the Minecraft
sandbox, I found myself doing the same thing all over again. I researched
crafting and where to find materials.
Often, my “research” was talking with my students to find out how to get
wool off the sheep or fill a bucket. It isn’t always easy, but the information
is out there, and students gain valuable skills researching the game.
Creativity and
Spatial Understanding
Go to Google Images (make sure Safe Search is on!) and Google
“Amazing Minecraft Creations.” Many of these are created by adults and teens,
but my friend’s 8-year-old showed me the castle he built in Minecraft, and it was incredible. Not only was it big enough to include his
fields, workshop, storage buildings and a castle complete with towers, but he
explained to me that he had to make a well to water his crops, that he couldn’t
put his mine in the castle because monsters kept coming out of it, and that he
had identified what was in each storage building by building a section of wall
out of the material. I only wish my house was as organized as his castle!
Time and Purpose
I want to make clear that I am not advocating eight-hour
days in front of the computer. In fact, I look at my World of Warcraft days and wonder what I could have accomplished
during that time. At the same time, I had fun. I met people online and got to
be friends with them without ever seeing past their avatar. We slew dragons and
rescued innocent villagers. We defeated monsters and took their riches. And
through all of that, I read, researched, typed, solved problems and used math
to create the most formidable hero my skills would allow. As an adult I played
for fun, but for your students, it is important to have a purpose and a plan if
you want the games to be educational.
Play the games with your child. Have them teach you to mine,
build, move, and make a plan for what they want to accomplish next in the game.
Ask them questions: Why? How? What if we did this? Encourage them to learn
about new buildings, and about how people actually harvest wool or mine stone. Go
to the library and get ideas for buildings, or take a walk through a city to look
at architecture. Education is about purpose. You have the ability to decide if
something is just a fun way to pass the time or a fun way to learn.
