Learning, teaching via video games

NEWARK -- In one game, a snake slithers across the screen, eating arithmetic symbols until they equal a desired number.  In another, an adventuring character wanders around a virtual world, encountering problem-solving exercises in basic logic.

Andrew Roosen, a University of Delaware computer science professor, checks out a computer game developed by UD students for Chester Community Charter School in Chester, Pa. / THE NEWS JOURNAL/FRED COMEGYS
 

For 17 seniors in a computer science class at the University of Delaware, these probably wouldn't be the games they'd choose to play, but that isn't the point. Instead, the video games created by five teams will help teach middle school students at Chester (Pa.) Community Charter School.

"Some of these guys came in here, frankly, just because they wanted to make video games," said Lori Pollock, a professor of computer science who teaches the class. "But to see them go from that attitude at the beginning to creating something that helps children learn is amazing."

A $400,000 National Science Foundation grant has funded the project over the past three years. Education experts called the initiative an innovative approach to expanding access to educational technology. And the idea could inspire other universities looking to support schools in their local community.

"It motivates the undergrads to see the value of their tech skills. And the schools get the resources they need," said James Gee, an Arizona State University professor who has studied the use of video games in education. "It's a model that might really spread."

The UD students created the games for a special type of laptop geared toward classroom use, but they hope to make the games available as free downloads on a website or an app-store platform.

The basis for this work: Since so many children spend so much time gaming anyway, why not make it educational? Many educators latched on to the idea of using technology in education several years ago. The question now is how to deliver it properly, Gee said.

"In eight years, it's gone from skepticism to complete acceptance," Gee said. "Some of it is hype, and some of it is real."
Like any resource in education, wealthier students tend to gain easier and more effective access to gaming in education. Gee and other experts worry students in struggling schools will fall behind without combining video games with smaller class sizes and more parental involvement.

"No technology is good or bad by itself; it's what you do with it," Gee said. "Games are turning out just like books. Handing a kid a book doesn't make them better students or more literate. And the same gap can develop with technology."

Expanding access

Next week, the Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit that tries to expand access to education, will award six grants worth $1.1 million to researchers looking for ways to get educational technology in the hands of more students needing help preparing for college.

If access to them can be expanded, the hope is that video games can level the playing field for students of lower-income schools. Video games could supplement the one-on-one attention teachers can't provide at all times, said Jim Applegate, vice president for program development at the Lumina Foundation.

"We know mentoring works, but it's hard to scale up to the millions of students we need to reach. We don't have an arm to put around each child," Applegate said. Gaming is

"allowing those mentors to have much greater impact with many more students."

The UD computer science students designed their games with that idea in mind. The games will record data on each student, giving them more problems related to areas where they struggle and helping teachers figure out a student's weak points.

The arrangement also benefits UD's undergraduates, who learn through the process of creating the game about how to make something for a target audience. The UD students interact with the children who will use their games and brainstorm with teachers and administrators to build a game suiting the school's needs.

That might sound obvious, but for many 21-year-old tech wizards, it isn't, Pollock said. The class also serves as a lesson in how to communicate with less computer-savvy people.

"We have to stop them constantly because they immediately start using jargon that nobody would understand," Pollock said. "They have to learn to explain things."

Eric McGinnis, a 21-year-old senior who has taken the class, said the experience made him think differently about his career options. Computer innovation can bring change in society, McGinnis said, not just solve technological problems.

"There's not a lot of classes that force you to work with people's needs and tastes and preferences," he said. "I think it's doing more to prepare us for the real world."