In our last class meeting the discussion of educational video games came up. This is a topic I never gave to much thought to prior to taking this class because I viewed video games as an outside form of entertainment or the ancient, boring games I was forced to play in high school. However, while Dr. Walters was playing Grand Theft Auto on the xbox360 I realized that video games could be so much more. Sadly, the problem with educational video games is that they are often 10 to 20 years behind the technological times or they are so one dimensional and boring that they rarely peak a students interests. I believe that with the easy accessibility of quality graphics and a new movement towards a more technologically driven classroom, cheesy educational games could be a thing of the past. For instance, if I was teaching a course on pioneer expansion to the western United States, instead of using an archaic game like the Oregon Trail that often bores students due to its lackluster graphics and elementary components, I could create or use a interactive game that utilizes the graphics of a game like Grand Theft Auto with elements that allow students to build their own pioneer experience complete with various characters that would have gone out west and the different realistic problems they would have faced. That sort of game gets students invested in the history of American expansion while still being entertained and interested in the storyline. I believe educators must realize that they are dealing with a digital generation that has grown up with computers, television, video games, graphics and all sorts of other technological gadgets that have become available in this day and age.
In regards to the two games we were asked to view, Wolf Quest and the Canadian history game, I was severly disappointed in both of them for differing reasons. Wolf Quest was painfully boring and left me with little gained knowledge about a wolf. Not only did the game take forever to upload onto my computer, once I uploaded it I was shocked by the poor quality of the graphics. For a game that was released in 2007 the graphics looked like my mortal combat game from the original play station in 1995. Educational video games often fall prey to the lack of stimulating graphics or a sub par visual vision. In order to sell a game like Wolf Quest to a student who has an xbox at home, the graphics must be extremely good. Another problem I had with the game was how boring it was. There was no story line, all the wolf could do was hunt, urinate, howl, and run. Now as a 20 year old student with a pretty extensive attention span I lost interest within five minutes, I can only imagine how long my 14 year old brother would last. It would have been much better if the creators would have installed missions that the wolves need to accomplish or a storyline that interested the user.
The second game, Canada, a history, was equally atrocious but for different reasons. As I went to go download the game I realized that I actually had to download another type of game/server called Civilization III that I had to pay for. Now I know that educational games cost money to make but as Dr. Walters pointed out, an educational game that received money from a grant should not charge its users. Plus, if I was a teacher wanting to do a segment on Canadian history in an interactive format I would have loved to use something like this game but would have had to resort to another method due to the fact that it costs money to use. Also, when I went to you tube to search the game all I could really find was promotional videos that didn't really allow me to see all the different aspects of the game. If an education game costs money, there should at least be a free trial run in which people can experience the game first hand before buying it. I think if they had done something like that there would have been a much higher response to the game.
Overall, I think that educational video games are wonderful tools for future educators. With new technology coming out all the time and a higher demand for interactive education, I believe interactive video games can become a great teaching tool to transmit knowledge to students. However, I also think that in order to make the digital transition into the classroom successful, educators need to become more modern with the graphics they use and more interesting and complex with the storyline development. They need to remember that most of the time their target audience will be the young, digital generation that has high standards in regards to technology.
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