Computer and Video Games in the Classroom By : Megan Erickson, Tiffany Wilkie , Samantha Shelnutt , Tynan Green, and

1. Computer and Video Games in the Classroom By :Megan Erickson, Tiffany Wilkie, Samantha Shelnutt, Tynan Green, and Marisa Sweney Findings Introduction Conclusion References Technology worldwide is enhancing and becoming a part of our everyday lives. Educational computer and video games being used in classrooms is a category of technology that is continually being discussed and debated by educators and students worldwide. The main purpose of educational computer and video games is to educate its users about new knowledge while displaying it in a fun, interactive method. However, it is argued that video games have the opportunity to be detrimental in the learning process. After conducting our research, we found that the debate still continues as to whether or not computer and video games are beneficial to students. On one hand, computer and video games have many positive aspects that encourage students’ learning. These aspects include: Encouraging interactive play, providing a less stressful environment, and promoting self esteem. Students may gain essential skills, develop hand-eye coordination and work through real-life situations. By integrating computer/video games into the classroom, students can become more familiar and comfortable with technology. On the other hand, computer and video games may have some disadvantageous impacts on students’ lives. These include: Playing games for long periods of time, poor eating habits, compulsion of continuing the game, unhealthy lifestyle, emotional and physical development, and aggressive thoughts and actions. Through our survey we were able to find that 85 percent of our sample group felt that computer/video games were helpful in their learning process. 15 percent felt that the games were not beneficial to their learning. Through a bar graph where our sample group was provided with computer/video games in their classroom, we were able to find that our sample group gained strategic and innovative thinking and a higher self esteem from achieving new levels. We also found that a large majority of future teachers at Winona State University are interested in incorporating educational computer/video games into their classrooms. As a group we feel that integrating computer/video games into the classroom would positively impact our students as well as their performance. • We produced a survey at the Survey Monkey website. Our survey • contains one true or false, four multiple choice, three open ended, and two • yes or no questions. We sent our survey via email to 50 Education Majors • and Winona State University. The ten questions of our survey are as follows: • 1. In elementary school, did you ever play educational computer/video games in the classroom? • a. Yes b. No • 2. If you did use computer/video games in your classroom, do you think they were beneficial to your learning process? Why or why not? (Explain) • 3. Did you enjoy using computer/video games in the classroom? Why or why not? (Explain) • 4. If any, which of the following educational computer/video games have you played in elementary school? • a. Oregon Trail • b. Reader Rabbit • c. Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? • d. Jump Start Series • e,. Math Blasters • f. Other  • 5. If any, which of the following educational computer/video games do you believe were the most beneficial to your learning process? • a. Oregon Trail • b. Reader Rabbit • c. Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? • d. Jump Start Series • e. Math Blasters • f. Other • 6. As a child what did you learn/gain from computer/video games? • a. Poor eating habits or an unhealthy lifestyle • b. Strategic and innovative thinking • c. Higher self esteem from achieving new levels • d. Aggressive thoughts or actions • e. Other • 7. As a future teacher are you interested in using educational computer/video games in your classroom curriculum? • a. Yes b. No • 8. True or false, today’s elementary students are more engaged in a lesson in school if there are educational computer/video games involved? • a. True b. False • 9. In your future classroom, would you prefer to use educational computer/video games to teach an entire lesson or just part of a lesson, leaving you to give some traditional instruction of the material. • a. Entire lesson b. Part of lesson • 10. As a future teacher, with budget cuts happening daily in elementary schools, do you think that educational computer/video games should be cut from the curriculum? Why or why not? (Explain) • Computer and video games have many positive aspects that encourage students’ learning. Positive arguments include: • Video games are often creatively made and encourage interactive play. Computer and video games foster creativity and are a way for students to be released from a stressful environment. • Children may gain confidence through the advancement of the many levels in the game. • Students gain many essential skills • Strategic and innovative thinking • Cooperation • Pattern recognition • Hypothesis testing • Quick thinking • Reasoned judgments • Students develop hand-eye coordination. • Students work through real-life situations. • The video games are self-paced which benefit students with various abilities. • Students become familiar with technology and begin to develop visual-spatial ability. • Although computer and video games are fun and enjoyable, they may have some disadvantageous impacts on children’s lives. Negative arguments include: • Students play computer and video games for long periods of time. • Students are more likely to develop poor eating habits and an unhealthy lifestyle. • Video games contain a challenge that creates a compulsion to continue to play the game. • If students continue in this repetitive play, it may have the power to affect the children’s emotional and physical development. • Depending on the computer or video game, aggressive thoughts and actions may develop. • It’s hard to measure/evaluate students’ advancement and knowledge gain. • Much of the material in the computer and video games isn’t beneficial and may be distracting to the actual content being conveyed. In analyzing our data from whether or not computer/video games were beneficial to our sample group’s learning in elementary school we found that 85 percent thought that the computer/video games were helpful in their learning process. 15 percent of our sample group disagreed by saying that the games were not beneficial to their learning. Further research could be done to see how computer/video games in education have impacted students today such as their test scores and a value of what they have learned as a total. Experiments could be conducted as well as observations in the classroom. One group of students would be taught with only traditional instruction and another group would be taught a lesson through a mix of both traditional teaching and educational computer/video games. Technology is a very important aspect of our everyday lives and our youth is experiencing it first-hand. Whether or not to integrate computer/video games in the classroom is an ongoing and continuous debate. We feel that someday computer/video games will be the norm in education and will take place of more traditional methods. This graph shows what our sample group thought they gained/learned from using computer/video games in their elementary classrooms. No one gained poor eating habits or an unhealthy lifestyle or aggressive thoughts and behaviors. 15 people said they gained strategic and innovative thinking. 2 people gained higher self esteem from achieving new levels of the games and 4 people said they gained/learned other things. These results show that playing educational computer/video games has been a very positive experience for many students. • Annetta, L. A., Murray, M. R., Gull Laird, S., Bohr, S. C., & Park, J. C. (2006). Serious games:Incorporating video games in the classroom. Educause Quarterly (eq), 29(3). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/SeriousGamesIncorporatingVideo/157412 • Kiefaber, M. (2002, April 17). Video games. In Implications ofonline gaming. Retrieved May 12, 2010, from http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/onlinegames/video.shtml • Shreve, J. (n.d.). (2005). Let the games begin: Entertainment meets education. Edutopia. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work. Edutopia. Retrieved May 11, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/let-games-begin Methods Through topic analysis we created a survey to help us better understand the answer to our two research questions. Our research questions are as follows: As a student, in your opinion, would video games have been or were they beneficial to you as a child in the classroom? As a future teacher are you interested in using computer/video games in your classroom? These results show that a large majority of future teachers at Winona State University are interested in using educational computer/video games in their classrooms. 81 percent of our sample group answered yes to this question and 19 percent answered no.