McDowall, S. (2015). Under the blood is learning: What students wish parents and teachers understood about gaming. Retrieved from http://www.nzcer.org.nz/blogs/under-blood-learning-what-students-wish-parents-and-teachers-understood-about-gaming-written
Concerns
Many parents seem mystified or despairing about the amount of time their children spend in darkened rooms playing digital games.
There also seems to be persistent moral panic in the media about digital games – the harm games do, how to manage their use in the home or at school, and the impact they have on the capacity for empathy, collaboration, creativity, and learning. Academics, policy makers, teachers, parents…
Many of the students we talked with described how the adults in their lives had negative views of gaming. Some students felt as though these adults not only had negative views of gaming but had negative views of them personally because they were into gaming.
“That we’re lazy”; “That we’re just wasting our time”; “That we’re wasting our money”; and “That they [digital games] don’t contribute to our learning.”
When we asked these same students what most of their teachers thought of their gaming, their responses were similar: “That you wouldn’t learn anything”; “Probably like that we’re getting brainwashed”; “That we’re useless”; “Yeah, you’re a loser. You don’t do anything except play video games kind of thing. You don’t need any intelligence for it.”
Gaming involves learning
Most students wished their parents teachers understood that gaming involved learning.
While some games appeared violent but that this was not the main attraction to playing them.
Parents were missing the point of the game by focusing on the violence.
These students wanted their parents to know that through gaming they learnt thinking, creativity, risk taking, problem solving, perseverance, and collaboration.
Some students spoke of the factual information they learnt incidentally through gaming.
Others considered that gaming extended their vocabulary.
Gaming is social
Some students felt deeply offended by the messages they received from parents or teachers that playing games made them “loners” or “losers”, unable or unwilling to interact socially with others.
Nearly all of the students talked about their gaming experiences as involving others, at least some of the time.
This social interaction included playing with or against their peers, talking on and off-line with peers about the games they enjoyed, the strategies they employed, and the problems they encountered.
This social interaction was, for many students, a fundamental part of what made gaming an enjoyable activity for them
Students can be responsible online
Students expressed frustration at the lack of trust their parents or teachers had in their ability to keep themselves safe online and use the internet responsibly.
Some students described receiving messages about the online world from these adults in their lives which did not align with students’ experiences, leading them to distrust or disregard adult warnings as stupid or naïve
Nearly all of the students we spoke with tried to make sense of the negative attitudes towards gaming they encountered. Some expressed empathy towards, or tried to excuse their parents’ or teachers’ biases.
Others expressed frustration at judgements made by others who knew very little about gaming.
Most students considered that some games were “pointless” or “stupid” and some students also had views on the need to maintain balance or recognised the problematic aspects of their game use, such as the health impacts or addiction risks.
All of the students knew of or had parents, teachers, and other adults who did understand the value of gaming, some of whom were gamers themselves.
How can we use these insights as teachers in schools?
Including gaming in their classroom programme
Sharing their gaming interests with students during informal conversations
By acknowledging, making space for, and using as a classroom resource the rich game knowledge, skills, and interests of their gamer students in traditional school activities
Gamifying their teaching approaches.
We can all make space for, and use as a classroom resource the rich game knowledge, skills, and interests of the gamer students in our classrooms.
Try gaming ourselves
There is plenty of help out there in our homes and in our classrooms.