William Tucker

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

December 6, 2017

When Work and Play Collide: Should Video Games be Implemented In the School

Curriculum

Like many middle schoolers his age, Julio likes to play video games. Some would even

say that playing video games is Julios passion. For Julio, Video games are the only outlet that

allows him to personally experience moments in WWII history. This is important to Julio

because he is not only a gamer. Julio is also a writer and a historian. When hes not playing

video games, he is reading about WWII or writing short stories about WWII.

Obviously, Julio has no trouble with the fundamentals of reading and writing at home. At

school is another story. Julio is failing his language arts class. He doesnt enjoy the assignments

given to him and often doesnt do them.

Julios teachers would suggest that he struggles with reading and writing and that he

needs extra help, however; this isnt the case for him. He clearly has talent when it comes to

language arts, so where is the disconnect between his work ethic at home and at school?

Some scientists and developers are suggesting that video games could be what is helping

kids like Julio thrive at home. Constance Steinkuehler, a professor of education and gamed based

learning at the University of California, composed a study on Julio and other young gamers who

are struggling in school.

To find out why Julio was doing poorly in school, Steinkuehler composed three tests. In

the first test, she gave Julio an assigned reading. As expected, Julio was reading at a fifth-grade
level when he should be reading at an eighth-grade reading level. During the second test,

Steinkuehler gave Julio an article about video games to see if he would read better if it was based

on a topic related to his hobby. Once again, Julio was reading at a fifth-grade level when he

should have been reading at an eighth-grade level. For the final test, Julio was given the chance

to choose an article to read. He chose an article about WWII and was reading at an twelfth-grade

level. According to Steinkuehler, The difference lay in his self-correction rate. When Julio was

allowed to self-select a topic, he persisted in the face of challenges, and was willing to struggle

through obstacles until he got the meaning. In other words, Julio does not have a problem with

reading and writing. Julios struggle comes when he is assigned homework that is not interesting

to him.

How are video games the solution? At the most basic level, video game play itself is a

form of digital literacy practice, writes Steinkuehler. In other words, the more a gamer interacts

with a video game, the more decisions that gamer makes. This is a good way to improve

creativity skills. The decisions that a gamer is making is determining the outcome of the game.

The player is quite literally creating a narrative through the controls. For example, the more Julio

plays a video game about WWII, the more ideas he will get for his own creative writing.

The disconnect comes with creativity in school. Gamers are playing video games that are

interesting to them. This means that the games are covering topics that are not generally taught in

school. This means that video games are making gamers better and reading and writing but not

the material that schools want them to be good at. But what if certain video games were created

specifically for students to play in school to help them get better at course material?

Recently, multiplayer educational gaming applications (MEGAs) have been produced by

many different companies. MEGAs are being created with the intention of helping students get
more excited about school, and helping students develop a deeper understanding of course

materials. MEGAs can be designed to help students for almost any class and grade level. It is no

question that MEGAs are helpful tools to give kids a unique way to learn new material. The real

question is if MEGAs are so beneficial that they should be implemented into school curriculum.

Leonard Annetta, a professor at North Carolina State University and author of a book

dealing with modern day video games, formed a peer edited article analyzing whether MEGAs

are worth being put into the curriculum. The specific game that Annetta focuses on is a teacher

created game that helps students learn about genetics. During this study, Annetta searches for

cognitive impact on students.

This specific MEGA was designed to be slightly harder than the students pre-established

knowledge on the subject. Most MEGAs are built this way so that students can reflect on what

they already know and apply that knowledge to the problem. If done right, students can learn

more new information just by being challenged with the information they already know.

The MEGA that Annetta experimented with was supposed to test students knowledge of

genetics. In this study, two groups were set aside. One group would review the class material

with paper and pencil and the other group would review via the MEGA. Annetta compared both

groups behavior and also compared the MEGA groups comprehension of the subject before

playing the MEGA review game and after playing the MEGA review game. For this specific

MEGA, Annetta calculated that it would be 89% reliable for students. The majority of the

students playing the MEGA were seen collaborating more and actively executing logical

thinking to complete specific tasks.

MEGAs like this seem to be working for a lot of students. According the Annetta, the

problem is that there is not concrete empirical data to support these theoretical claims. In other
words, MEGAs could already be advanced enough to be implemented in to school. There just

arent enough studies performed on MEGAs for education boards to be comfortable enough to

implement them into their curriculum in a meaningful way. The bigger problem is that every

MEGA created needs to be tested because each MEGA has different ways of teaching different

subjects.

The MEGA that Annetta is following is a teacher created game. This is significant

because if teachers discover the value of MEGAs, the education board will not be obligated to

implement MEGAs into the curriculum. Instead, teachers will be given the opportunity to

implement MEGAs as they see fit. The problem is that many teachers will not feel compelled to

make their own MEGA. MEGAs are not easy to make and it takes a lot of time to create a

polished game. It is possible for teachers to borrow MEGAs from an outside source, but many

subjects do not yet have MEGAs covering them.

Currently, MEGAs are being primarily used in non-school related extra help platforms.

Whether it is with a tutor, or a MEGA you can use at home, MEGAs can be found all over the

internet. The most common MEGAs are found on websites that offer fun games for young kids

to play. These MEGAs deal with more simple material like math and vocabulary. These MEGAs

tend to be more reliable but cant help a student grow after a certain skill level. Since these

MEGAs are easier to create, they have been around for a longer time and have pathed a road for

more complex educational games.

Currently, one of the most successful MEGAs is MinecraftEDU. This MEGA derived

form the game Minecraft. Minecraft is an open world sandbox game, meaning that players

are the ones controlling what they do. There is no real story or objective, it is all up to the player.

In this aspect alone, gamers are already practicing different literature skills like Julio was when
playing video games about WWII. The problem with the game Julio was playing is that it only

focused on WWII, so the only thing Julio was learning about was WWII. With MinecraftEDU,

different lesson plans can be created for different subjects, allowing students to have fun and

learn more about the subject that is assigned to them.

Minecraft is a good game to use as a MEGA because of the players ability to do

anything they want. Minecraft has an easy to learn building system that allows the teacher to

create any kind of game that is appropriate for the lesson plan. This takes the difficulty out of

teachers building their own MEGAs because there are less coding issues that the teacher has to

worry about.

Anya Kamenetz, writer and lead education blogger for NPR, researched MinecraftEDU

to see how it became so successful. According to Kamenetz, MinecraftEDU was created by a

technology teacher, Steven Isaacs. Instead of creating a server in Minecraft and forming a

single MEGA, Isaacs created a software where teachers could use an alternate form of

Minecraft, A.K.A MinecraftEDU, and create a MEGA of their own.

When it was first created, MinecraftEDU had its own small fan base. Many fans of the

original game Minecraft and a new group composed of teachers and students had both started

using the software regularly. The best part about the software was that anybody could use it.

Whether it was a teacher who wanted to create a game for their students or a fan who wanted to

create a role-playing game with their friends, one thing was clear: The software worked, and it

worked well. This is significant for MinecraftEDU because this more advanced design could

help students learn their class material and it helped fans like Julio express themselves creatively.

The most important part of MinecraftEDU is that it can create a MEGA that can help

students in any grade level. This is significant because it can become a hub for teachers to share
different MEGAs with the knowledge that each MEGA has a similar success rating because they

are all derived from the same game. MinecraftEDU is also significant in that it can better

organize a market for MEGAs. This system is almost similar to a social media platform for

sharing MEGAs in one accessible marketplace.

This type of business plan has become so attractive that Microsoft purchased the original

game, Minecraft, for $2.5 Billion. Obviously, MinecraftEDU is too small of a company for

Microsoft to be spending that much money. Minecraft still generates an extremely higher

revenue than MinecraftEDU. What is significant is that there are alleged talks between

MinecraftEDUs founder and Microsoft. This would mean that a big company like Microsoft

has found value in the MEGA market and a big investor like that could push the world of

MEGAs into the future at a faster rate. This could also mean more studies done on MEGAs to

ensure that MEGAs are appropriate for the education system. This purchase also leaves room for

Microsofts competitors to create more MEGA companies for competition. This would mean that

school systems will be debating on what company to buy MEGAs from instead of debating on

whether they should be buying MEGAs at all.

Microsoft isnt the only group that wants MEGAs to succeed. MEGAs are starting to

show up on the Department of Educations radar. The Department of Educations website has a

subsection that focuses on different ways that technology can start to be integrated in to the

school systems. This section primarily focuses on technology like cameras, video editing, sound

editing, software editing, etc. This is significant because it means that the Department of

Education is open to the world of technology. If it thinks that new technology can help students

learn while expressing themselves creatively, then they are willing to do it. Actual evidence of
MEGAs on the website it present but to a significantly smaller degree. This means that the

Department of Education is open to the idea but not yet willing to commit to it.

Upon further research into the Department of Educations website, there is a section that

gives examples of MEGAs being successfully implemented into the class room. The website

offers games that have worked in the past and offers ideas of what have worked for many

different teachers.

The fact that MEGAs have the support of the Department of Education is a big step into

integrating MEGAs into school curriculums. The hope is to allow all students equal access to

MEGAs instead of a small group of teachers trying to find better alternatives for their students to

learn. If implemented right, the percentage of students who give up on school at a young age

could go down drastically. Students who have issues paying attention in school would now be

able to have a creative outlet to learn. After school programs could be implemented to give

students a fun way to learn while not having to deal with the stress of school.

Video games have been given a bad name since they were conceived. According to

Constance Steinkuehler, video games have an unfortunate reputation with many parents and

teachers despite a growing body of scholarly work in literacy studies investigating their merits.

Its incredibly unfortunate that video games were given a bad name before people explored them

to find different ways to help different communities.

With the help of MEGA video games, students and teachers have created a new learning

community that is more inclusive than ever. Kids dont feel as pressured to raise their hand or be

called out because everybody is collaborating. MEGAs put the idea of treating each other as

equals into practice.

projects that dont necessarily pertain to school. This is incredibly significant because the kids

who were previously dreading going to school can now learn course material easily through

MEGAs and then go home and further their creative skills by joining other online communities.

In conclusion, all research done on MEGAs suggests that they are safe to be used in class.

They have created close knit communities, given students the chance to collaborate with each

other, helped students advance their understanding on certain subjects, and given students the

opportunity to express themselves creatively. The only problem with MEGAs is that some might

be created improperly and not end up helping students learn. Fortunately, as more MEGAs are

studied, more MEGAs are approved to be used by classrooms. The future of MEGAs is bright.

There is potential investment power, and it seems as though many different groups are looking in

to the new field of education/business. As long as there are big groups backing up MEGAs like

MinecraftEDU, MEGAs should be put into school curriculum in the near future.
 Bibliography

Annetta, Leonard. Investigating the Impact of Video Games on High School Students

Engagement and Learning About Genetics. Science Direct, vol. 53, no. 1, 2009, p. 74 -

85.

Kamenetz, Anya. Schoolifying Minecraft Without Ruining It. nprED, 9 August 2017,

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/08/09/539518179/schoolifying-minecraft-without-

ruining-it

Office of Educational Technology. Department of Education, https://tech.ed.gov/netp/teaching/.

Accessed 10 October 2017.

Steinkuehler, Constance. Video Games and Digital Literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult

Literacy, vol. 54, no. 1, 2010, p. 61+.