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When Tanya Byron delivered her review ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’ in March 2008, many people breathed a sigh of relief. In contrast to the reactionary attitude towards digital technologies often seen in the media, Byron struck a level-headed balance. Calling for new strategies to reduce children’s access to adult content and experiences, she also drew attention to the positive potential of new technologies, citing the “unprecedented opportunities to learn, develop and have fun” that games and online worlds offer.

Computer game-playing is now a part of the majority of children’s lives. The Byron report states that sales of games for the under-12 age group represent nearly threequarters of the total UK games market. 87% of 5-16 year-olds have a games console at home*, and the enormous success of the Nintendo Wii has shown that new technologies can reach and hold audiences who never expected to enjoy playing computer games.

Yet while games still labour under a general association in the media with the frivolous, the violent and the mindless, can they ever find a natural place in formal education? “There is certainly a growing body of evidence that some characteristics of games have a role in learning settings,” says Di Levine, Head of Educational Research and Analysis at Becta, the Government's technology agency for schools. “But sometimes elements of a game are more useful than a game as a whole, and some learners' needs are better met than others.” What do we know so far about the potential of games for learning – and what factors could encourage their development to offer the “unprecedented opportunities” mentioned by Tanya Byron? An empirical understanding of using games in the classroom is slowly emerging from innovative practice around the world.

Former teacher Tim Rylands has developed literacy-boosting techniques using the stunning imagery and exploration potential of the game Myst. Elsewhere, School Tycoon is one of a number of simulation-type games that teachers have tried in their lessons. At Park View City Learning Centre in Birmingham, 10 and 11 year-old pupils played the ‘sandbox’ version of the game in which you can develop a school from scratch – designing classrooms, landscaping, recruiting staff and attracting pupils – and in the process develop spatial thinking skills, numeracy and social awareness, among other skills such as team working, strategic thinking and decision making.

Perhaps more surprisingly, there is published evidence that learning outcomes can result from entertainment-oriented games played for fun. Researcher Constance Steinkuehler examined World of Warcraft, a fantasy-based massively multiplayer online game (MMO) in which players work together to complete quests and defeat enemies. She discovered players were formulating theories about how the game-world worked, and then testing their hypotheses – practicing, in essence, the scientific method. It wasn’t just a small proportion of the players, either: “I visited the game community forums, predicting that 5-10% of the conversations would look like high-end problem solving, and the rest would be banter,” she says. “Instead, 86% of a random sample were about problem solving.”

And, it seems, games and technologies developed specifically for educational purposes are improving, trying to emulate the ‘engagement factor’ seen in commercial computer games (although, of course, they have to succeed in much more than ‘engagement’ if they are to be successful tools for learning). At the London Knowledge Lab, Caroline Pelletier worked with specialist educational software publisher Immersive Education to develop MissionMaker, a tool to allow young people to make their own impressive 3D games. In use by schools across the country, the software allows teenagers to learn how to create a gripping narrative using interactive spaces, multimedia and engaging dialogue. For Caroline, it’s crucial to make games in order to develop media literacy: “It gives children the resources and skills to enable them to become sophisticated participants in digital culture, as well as consuming it,” she says.

The potential of games to tackle difficult and multi-faceted issues – and ultimately change behaviour – is already being explored through some ground-breaking education projects in the UK. Oxford-based company Red Redemption recently completed Climate Challenge, a game sponsored by the Government to engage young people in the issues and choices surrounding climate change. “Games are excellent at using simple mechanics to model and communicate understanding about complex issues,” says Gobion Rowlands, one of the game’s creators. “The player can take their own time to explore the issues and, if the game is designed well, they can come to their own conclusions rather than be force-fed an opinion.”

Young people were crucial partners in developing an anti-knife-crime game, Soul Control, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Twenty disadvantaged 16-19 year-olds lent personal experiences and learned industrystandard skills in game-design software, music and film production as they worked with multimedia education company RollingSound on the game. It aims to show realistically the longer-term repercussions of criminal behaviour, such as carrying knives or dealing drugs, by using the highcredibility medium of a gritty game.

Computer games certainly have the advantage of appealing to audiences disenchanted with traditional media and school activities. Gobion Rowlands says: “Games make use of sub-conscious learning techniques, engaging the player with the game world – it’s a natural and fun way of learning.”

But how the natural appeal of games manifests itself in our brains isn’t yet fully understood. Research published in 1998 showed that the brain’s hormonal response to winning a tank-battle game was equivalent in potency to an injection of amphetamines. Game addiction is an issue acknowledged by the Byron Review, although among young people only a low percentage play to a level of 30 hours a week or more, and it’s not clear whether this is due to an addictive property of the game, or just a lack of alternative activities.

The way in which games combine challenge and reward, however, is one of their unique benefits, offering learners the potential to become immersed and engaged. The concept of ‘flow’ has been proposed to describe an optimal mental state often experienced during gaming, and desirable for learning, when the task is neither too hard (leading to anxiety) nor too easy (leading to boredom).

There is a long way to go before the true potential of games for learning is fully exploited, and a greater dialogue between the games industry, educational policy makers, researchers and practicing educators is one of Byron’s recommendations. Di Levine of Becta sees the need for specific conversations and initiatives: “Teacher education has a key role to play, as does the current review of the primary curriculum, which needs to ensure effective integration of digital and media literacy within its final proposals,” she says. “There are also opportunities for Government and the education community to work with industry to better understand the educational potential and value of games.”

So far, very few leading commercial games companies have bitten the educational bullet, but Blitz Games is a rare exception. It has developed a highly realistic training game for health professionals called Triage Trainer through a division called TruSim. Tasks such as dealing with a victim dying of blood loss are accurately represented using a proprietary physiological model and the latest commercial-grade coding.

But why use a game format rather than a simulation? “The point of a serious game is that it can mirror real life and allow the player to make mistakes without harming anyone,” explains Strategy Director Mary Matthews. “It is the skill of the game designer to ensure a player feels the same thrill of success in achieving a learning objective as he or she would in getting to the next level or completing an entertainment game.”

The power of games to persuade has been adopted by advertisers, who produce witty, quick-hit games either playable on a webpage or as a fast, free download. The genre has more recently been adopted by charities and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) such as UNICEF in games such as Darfur is Dying and Ayiti to explore the value of life. With inherently lower production values than fully-fledged games, such games may be a good avenue for development in formal learning.

And the horizon for new types of games with potential for education goes on expanding. From ‘augmented reality’ games that use handheld technology to overlay the physical environment with a digital game, to a system that lets you care for a pet hamster while you’re away from home or school: there really is no limit. However, the real issue is how can we make these games so that they are both engaging and offer real potential for learning? The answer, it seems, is to get the games industry and education stakeholders working together to share expertise and understanding. Let’s hope that Tanya Byron’s call for increased collaboration does result in the much-needed dialogue that will, at long last, ensure that education is no longer – in terms of games – the poor cousin of the commercial sector.

*Childwise Monitor report 2005/2006, quoted by the BBC at www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/marketresearch/audiencegroup1.shtml

Links

Persuasive Games - www.persuasivegames.com
Tim Rylands - www.timrylands.com
MissionMaker - www.immersiveeducation.com/missionmaker
Operation Climate Control - makesyouthink.net/games/operation-climate-control
Soul Control - www.soulcontrolgame.co.uk
Triage Trainer - www.trusim.com
Darfur is Dying - www.darfurisdying.com
Ayiti: the cost of life - www.unicef.org

Further reading

Rebecca Mileham (2008). Powering Up: Are Computer Games Changing Our Lives? Wiley

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