It’s Time to Play!

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.