Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

Introducing Video Games Into The Classroom

Aidan Roy
Due: October 19, 2015
ECS 100 014
Sean Lessard
October 17, 2015

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

Abstract
Video games have become much more popular in todays society, to the point that they
are starting to be introduced into schools as a means of education. It makes sense that teachers
should incorporate video games into their teachings if most students play them outside of school.
With that being said, people around the world debate that video games should not be
incorporated into schools because students already play enough video games as it is and that it
will only cause harm if we also bring them into the classroom. However, video games should be
integrated more into classrooms for a variety of reasons. In many ways, video games open a door
to more learning opportunities than ever, and we need to use that to our advantage. After all, our
world is constantly growing technologically and using video games to educate students will be a
valuable tool. In the end, video games will do more good for our education than bad.

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

Video games have been around since the early 1950s, but didnt catch on until the 1970s
(2015, Pong, para. 1). Since that time, video games have become much more popular to the point
that they are starting to be introduced into schools as a means of education. Since so many
students use video games outside of school, it makes sense that teachers should also incorporate
them into their teachings. After all, Four out of five U.S. households own a device used to play
video games (ESA, 2015, p. 2). In some classes today, elementary school teachers are bringing
in the infamous Minecraft video game to teach students about different subjects ranging from
science to history through the physics and world building elements the game possesses (Bristow,
2013). With that being said, people debate that video games should not be incorporated into
schools because students already play enough video games as it is and that it will only cause
harm if they are involved with it more. I strongly believe that video games should be integrated
more into classrooms for three important reasons: Video games engage students and provide
them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned, video games encourage education
and increase both perception and cognitive processes, and video games help students with
learning disabilities understand topics that may not be clear to them.
To begin, video games are a fantastic way to engage students in the classroom, especially
with our technologically filled world. They provide intriguing gameplay that motivates the
players to succeed in the task on hand, and to build on it afterwards. Take the "Teaching Social
Studies with Video Games" article for example (Maguth, List, Wunderle, 2015). In this article,
the authors explain why social studies teachers should use video games to educate their classes.
They provide concrete evidence that "97% of all U.S. teens identify as video game players"
(Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans, Vitak, 2008), and how the use of the video game

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, fits into the seventh-grade world history curriculum. The
article then goes on to explain how they use this game to teach and what questions are posed to
the students to answer. Since this game is about how civilizations grow and interact with one
another, an example of one of the questions provided was: "How have you used diplomacy and
war to build your civilization? Has one approach been more benecial than the other in the
game?" As we can see, if an educator bases a whole class period devoted to these two questions,
they will receive well thought out responses and applied understandings. In my own experience,
I, too have learned from video games. I have learned about the theory of evolution through the
computer game Spore, I have learned about past wars from popular video games such as Call of
Duty, and I have learned about the different aspects of life through the Sims franchise. All of
these games have enriched my learning experience and I believe this should also be passed on to
students.
Furthermore, another reason video games should be involved in classrooms is due to its
many other benefits. For instance, it has been proven that video games trigger dopamine releases
in the brain causing the feeling of pleasure (Linden, 2011). Not only that, but Isabela Granic of
the Radboud University says, "If playing video games simply makes people happier, this seems
to be a fundamental emotional benefit to consider" (Bowen, 2014, para. 8). This in turn,
encourages education because it enables students to feel a sense of wonder while learning.
However, that is not the only advantage to playing video games. In the article Play That Can Do
Serious Good (Eichenbaum, Bavelier, Green, 2014), the authors talk about many of the positive
aspects to playing video games. They especially make the point that video games have a great
effect on perceptual and cognitive processing. This means that video games naturally enhance
vision, attention, multi-tasking, and memory. All of these processes are essential to human

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

beings, but are more-so used by students. This is of the utmost importance. They also mention
the example that endoscopic surgeons who played video games often outperformed the most
experienced surgeons in their field. That means that people are also performing their jobs better
because of video games. I concur that people are encouraged to play video games because of the
aspect of being successful in the game. After all, winning is a major part of most video games.
This brings me to believe that there is a lot more to video games than meets the eye, and that
negative connotations of them being incorporated into classrooms are nil. This also brings up the
point that video games will be able to hit all demographics from male to female, and elementary
school to high school. The possibilities of incorporating video games into classrooms is endless
and we are only just starting to see that.
Finally, video games are an effective way to communicate ideas to students who have
learning disabilities. In a recent article created by a group of university professors, they detail a
fully laid out example of how video games were used to teach teenagers who werent grasping
the concepts taught in a secondary science class (Marino, Becht, Vasquez, Gallup, Basham,
Gallegos, 2014). They did this by explaining that two students had completely different learning
problems, one who could not read well and one who had autism spectrum disorder. When the
teacher saw that most of her students were on their phone during class, she had the idea of
incorporating video games into her special education course. Through this, the teacher was able
to educate those two students who were struggling in science through the use of video games.
The article also briefly mentions what makes certain video games a good educational tool. Some
common things that came up were level structure, if it can be turned educational, how many
classes a person would be able to teach using the video game, whether or not the game is actually
entertaining, and the overall cost of having it installed on computers. I believe that this is an

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

excellent way to judge whether or not a game is able to accomplish what the curriculum has set
out. I also think that this is great when it is used for special education students. In many ways,
video games open a door to more learning opportunities that werent available in the past, and we
need to use that to our advantage. After all, our world is always growing technologically and not
using video games to educate would be a lost opportunity for all of us.
To conclude, video game are an effective tool for teaching that should be used more in
classrooms. It provides plenty of room to engage students and show what they have learned in
class, it hosts many surprising benefits including improved vision, better memory, and improved
multi-tasking skills, and video games provide students with learning disabilities the opportunity
to learn in different ways than the standard methods of teaching. In the end, video games have an
extremely large impact on society that needs to be incorporated into our education system. In
addition, they are also very easy to understand and to teach with. No matter what the cost, video
games will do more good for our education than harm.

Running Head: INTRODUCING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

References
Bowen, L. (2014). Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits, review finds.
Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.aspx
Bristow, E. (2013). Gaming in Education Minecraft in Schools? Retrieved from
http://www.theedublogger.com/2013/11/21/gaming-in-education-minecraft-in-schools/
Eichenbaum, A., Bavelier, D., Green, C. (2014). Play That Can Do Serious Good. American
Journal of Play. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1043955.pdf
Electronic Software Association. (2015). Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game
Industry. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ESAEssential-Facts-2015.pdf
Lenhart, A., J. Kahne, E. Middaugh, A. Macgill, C. Evans, & J. Vitak. (2008). Teens, Video
Games and Civics. Retrieved from
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/TeensVideo-Games-and-Civics.aspx.
Linden, D. (2011). Video Games Can Activate the Brains Pleasure Circuits. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-compass-pleasure/201110/video-games-canactivate-the-brains-pleasure-circuits-0
Maguth, B., List, J., & Wunderle, M. (2015). Teaching Social Studies with Video Games. The
Social Studies, 106:1, 32-36, DOI: 10.1080/00377996.2014.961996
Marino, M. T., Becht, K. M., Vasquez III, E., Gallup, J. L., Basham, J. D., & Gallegos, B.
(2014). Enhancing Secondary Science Content Accessibility With Video Games.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 47(1), 27-34. DOI:10.1177/0040059914542762
Wikipedia. (2015). First Video Game. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_video_game