Educational Video Games in the Classroom Kaylin Bertsch, Sarah Kelly, Kelley Lippner

1. Educational Video Games in the Classroom Kaylin Bertsch, Sarah Kelly, Kelley Lippner Introduction Video games are becoming increasingly popular among students of all ages. There is a controversy about whether or not educational video games should be used in the classroom. We researched this controversy and found the positives and negatives of integrating video and computer games into curriculum. On one side, video games help students become more involved in their learning. The students can have fun while learning new concepts. Critics of video games in the classroom say that video games disconnect children from the “real world” and lose face-to-face communication skills. After finding both sides of the argument, we wanted to find out more about if video games can be used as an effective learning tool. Because we are all future educators we wanted to find out how using video games affects teachers. We wanted to know if it helped teachers by having a break from teaching the class directly or if it hurt teachers because then students would maybe have a hard time focusing on their teacher when they were not using video games. We were also curious if others thought that video games make students more enthusiastic about learning. (We will show what we found from our survey in our section on findings.) Video games will be ever present among children of many ages. The question remains if we should turn these video games into a positive learning tool or keep them at home and out of the schools. • Methods • Number of people invited to respond to the survey: 25 • Number of responses: 22 • Response rate: 88% • SURVEY: • 1. When you were in elementary school did you play video games in your classroom? Yes/No • 2. When you were in elementary school what types of video games did you enjoy playing? • 3. Video games can be used as an effective learning tool. • Strongly agree • Agree • Disagree • Strongly disagree • 4. How often were computers available to you in your elementary school? • Always • Sometimes • Never • 5. At what age do you think educational computer/video games would be most beneficial? • Preschool • Elementary school • Middle school • High school • 6. What do you think about the costs necessary to use educational video games in the classroom? • 7. Educational video games help the children become more enthusiastic about learning. True/False • 8. Educational video games/ computer games are beneficial for teachers. True/False • 9. Interacting through online video games is ________ than interacting through face to face communication. • Better • The same • Worse • 10. As a future teacher would you use video games in the classroom? Yes/No Findings Conclusions As a group we have learned that educational video games are very beneficial in the classroom. They make the students more enthusiastic about learning and it is a change of pace in the classroom. It also helps the students apply what they have just learned. Video games help students with problem solving and analysis skills that are needed in everyday life. We think technology definitely benefits the overall flow of the classroom. It gives the students different mediums to learn from and is a very positive influence on their learning as well as the teaching. We would use educational video games in our classroom because it makes the students more enthusiastic about learning, it benefits the teachers as well as the students and it applies the basic skill they just learned. In this graph, a total of 22 people were asked about whether or not they thought educational video games caused children to become more enthusiastic about learning. The response was overwhelming. 21 out of the 22 people believed that educational video games caused children to become more enthusiastic about learning. This is over 95% of the survey takers. This chart shows 15 out of 22 people agree that video games can be used as an effective learning tool. That is about 68% of the survey takers. Only 3 people disagreed with this statement and no one strongly disagreed, which shows the majority agree that video games can be effective in a classroom setting. References Olsen, S. (2009, November 1). Educational video games mix cool with purpose. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02games.html Hoppock, J. (2008, June 13). Playing to learn: video games in the classroom. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5063661&page=1 Annetta, L.A. (2010, January 21). Serious games: incorporating video games in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolu The data in this graph shows that 20 people believe that educational video games are beneficial for teachers in the classroom. 2 people do not believe educational video games are beneficial for teachers in the classroom. This information is very important because the majority of future teachers think that educational video games will benefit their teaching. Therefore making things easier on the teacher and more entertaining for the students.