My Twisted Brain

Okay, here’s the promised textual explosion on video games in the classroom.  My apologies up front for the meandering, but hey, as I’ve noted before, it’s my blog.  Sue me.  But first, read on!

Last Thursday our class was entertained by Dr. Joseph Kahne of Mills College in Oakland, CA.  Dr. Kahne spoke about using video games to further civic involvement by our nation’s youth.

Wow, that sounds dry.  It is also a pale description of the presentation that Dr. Kahne gave.

Dr. Kahne’s presentation was a joy to behold.  He touched on topics ranging from the importance of schools involving their students in civic activities, to the ability of games to the relationship that video games have with learning, to the perception that video games have in current society. I’m kicking myself for not recording the presentation for my own use, just to remember the richness of the information that he delivered.  I’m hoping that at least he makes his PowerPoint presentation available to us.  It would be wonderful to have it to refresh my old memory!

While the figures that he quoted were compelling, what I found refreshing was his common sense approach to video games, and how the players may and may not be affected by playing them.  Of course, as those of you who have not been stuck in the 60s are probably aware, there’s a war on between those who feel that video games are evil incarnate and those who feel that video games are an annoying waste of time at worst, and a powerful tool of instruction and expression at best.  Dr. Kahne’s presentation took this topic head on, and gave some convincing arguments in favor of the latter of the two groups.

It’s time for a little disclosure at this point.  I happen to work for a very large marketer of video game systems and software.  I happen to believe that video games are not the evil that they have been made out to be, and that has been my feeling ever since Pong made its debut on my family’s television in the very early 1970s. With that out of the way, let’s do a little discussin’, shall we?

Why Not Educational Video Games?

So, perhaps due in part to the (so far unfounded) bias against video games, many educators seem to have come to the conclusion that video games have no place in the educational environment.  Dr. Kahne offered a very good argument in favor of video games in the educational world.  However, he also raised a very good point about the development of  “educational” video games…they just don’t get made.  The reason for this seems to be that none of the major game developers are interested in making anything other than games with swords, guns, basketballs, or similar.  They’re just not convinced that they’ll sell.

I think that perhaps the reason for this is that thus far those that know how to create good educational materials are clueless about how to make a game that’s fun to play, and therefore marketable.  Conversely, those who know how to make fun, engaging games know nothing about education and learning.  The answer of course is to get a group together that has a passion for both gameplay and education.  I don’t think that this “perfect storm” of “edutainment” is far from being realized.

All that you have to do is look at the generation of individuals that is now coming to the fore in the educational field.  Our young instructional designers and educators are part of the gaming culture.  They know what’s fun in the video game arena.  They “get it” when it comes to making video games engaging and fun.  Nearly all of them have played video games in their youth, and I will wager that most continue to play them as the move into adulthood.  I think that, once the big publishers can be convinced that educational games really can be financially rewarding, they’ll be scouring resumes for people who have both video game and educational experience.  There will be a snowball effect.  When EA releases a game that actually teaches something and makes money, the rest will be eager to jump on that bandwagon.

The Teacher Component

The other side of the educational video game coin is the education establishment itself.  As I wrote earlier, there just isn’t much support so far for video games in the classroom.  They’re viewed as a distraction at best, and a negative influence at worst.  In order for a video game to really be successful, there has to be a market.  In my opionion, educators are the key.  As an example, you can look at what the computer hardware manufacturers have done to promote their products…they give them to the schools.  Apple was on the forefront on this, giving Macs to graphic design schools, universities, and even grade schools.  As those students graduated and moved into the workforce, guess which brand of hardware they chose?

Now, imagine what would happen to the world of video games if teachers began to introduce them into schools as part of their curriculum.  Once the shock wore off, parents would begin to see the other side of video games (which many actually see now), given the stamp of approval by those who should “know about these things”.  In addition, the parents themselves will have grown up in the video game generation, and will most likely as a whole not harbor the same misconceptions and confusion about video games that we see so much of currently.  Video games will be okay, and publishers will begin to see that they can begin to market video games on their educational merit to a constituency that sees their potential value.

Video Games Cause Violent Behavior, Right?

Video games still have a bad rep, and this stigma is probably going to be the most difficult hurdle to overcome when moving into the educational realm.  There is no end to the number of armchair psychologists who swear that video games cause any number of societal ills.  It seems that not a week goes by when there isn’t some violent tragedy where video games get the blame.  Everything from childhood obesity to divorce rates cause the video game finger pointing to begin.  While in some cases there may be a connection, the issues where video games are the scapegoat are far too complex to pin on a single cause, especially when you consider that most of the issues aren’t new.  One comment that I read recently on a video game oriented website summed it up well…did Hitler play Counterstrike, the board game, as a child?  I doubt it.

At the point of the controversy, in my opinion, is the concept of causation versus correlation.  Many video game critics such as Jack Thompson and the (dubiously) Honorable Keith Vaz love to quote studies that they claim prove that violent video games cause violent behavior.  One of Thompson’s favorite terms is “causal link”.  However, there has yet to be a credible study that proves a causal link between video game (or other media) violence and violent behavior.  All credible studies that have linked violent behavior with violence in video games have done so in a correlative way.

Big deal right?  They’re linked either way.  Well, there is a big difference.  A causal link in one in which an event or action occurs as a direct result of another action; the initial action causes the resulting event to take place.  There is a causal link between swinging a hammer and a nail being driven into a piece of wood.

A correlative link, on the other hand, is a link between two events where there is no established cause between the two.  Usually, a correlative link between events exists when a third event (or set of events) causes both events to occur simultaneously, or at least within the same context.  If you have your television and a table lamp plugged into the same outlet, and that outlet is controlled by a wall switch, then someone who is simply observing when someone else turns on the switch will see the light turn on, and then see the television turn on a few seconds later after it warms up.  While someone could come to the conclusion that there is a causal link between the light glowing and the television coming on since every time they see the television turn on it is immediately preceded by the light turning on, the actual cause is someone else turning on the switch.  The television and lamp have a correlative relationship.  They both always come on at the same time, but there is something else causing both actions.

In the case of violent actions and violent video games, it is very likely that the same emotional or mental issues that drive an individual to commit unspeakable acts also drives them to play violent games.  There are uncounted numbers of people who play violent games every day who never experience the urge to go out and mow down a play yard full of children.  So far, studies have backed this position up.  Some have suggested a correlative relationship between the two, but the only studies that even hint at a causal link have been discredited due primarily to sloppy research.  The bottom line is that the argument that many politicians and overly ambitious lawyers have put forth condemning video games as the cause of all that is bad in our society is as full of holes as Solid Snake on a bad day at the office.

What About the Title?

Okay, so what does the title of this little diatribe mean?  It came about after a conversation that I had in the halls of SFSU with one of my classmates.  We were discussing the resistance that the educational community has to introducing educational video games into the classroom, and he hit on the idea of referring to them as “activities” rather than video games.  I thought that was genius, and wonder to this day why he isn’t making the big bucks working for Capcom as their director of marketing.  There’s a similar issue on the developer end too…calling a game “educational” is the kiss of death.  An “educational” game will never make it past the napkin that it’s first conceived on.

So, how about this…let’s call them “Socially Constructive Games(tm)” to the publishers, and “Hyper-engaging Electronically Enhanced Learning Activities(tm)” to the educators.  Maybe that’ll get the ball rolling!  Or not, but I’m out of ideas, energy, and time, so this ends here.  There’s a lot more to be said on the subject, and I invite you to flesh it out below!

EDIT (3/23/09):  Here’s an interesting opinion piece posted in The Harvard Crimson last week about appropriate reactions to teen violence. Via GamePolitics.com.