Can Video Games Be a Force For Good?

                Why should society care about video games and the power of teaching that they represent? That is a great question and I intend to answer it. I touched on this subject some with my first post, but I would like to go in to more detail in this post.

                Video games have been viewed, by society as a whole, at best as a past time, and at worst as a waste of time. For many years video games were a simple interface and had little to no story. For example, the earlier games of Pong and Space Invaders, had almost no story and little to no narrative. I think for this reason video games got their beginning reputation as a waste of time. I would argue however, that video games of today have become a rich medium filled with story and narrative. The current generation of games can transport one's mind to a far away world, just like any good book. This was the subject of my previous post, and I will let the reader explore that topic in more depth there. Why should society embrace this new medium of video games? Because it is the future.

                In the near future every person will be playing some form of a game. In this modern day of tablets and smart phones everyone is playing games. My own mother will spend several hours a day playing Angry Birds or Words With Friends on her phone. This is something I have never seen her do in my entire life and frankly it is amazing. Games are reaching new audiences and frontiers and we, society, need to see them for what they are. A new form of entertainment and, most importantly, a new form of teaching tools.

                Society should realize the teaching potential held within a video game. Imagine, five or ten years from now, a kindergarten class. When the kindergartners arrive at their class room they do not have books or even desk to do their work on. Instead they have several projectors set up with an XBOX 360 and a Kinect device at each. These setups would teach a different subject and the children would rotate, in groups, through each set up learning different topics. The teacher would be more of an administrator and help the children when they got stuck on a certain level or problem. Their weekly tests would be like a boss battle in the game and once they pass that, they can move on to harder material. Now you may be thinking, "Oh no, our future children will be social retards incapable of interacting with other human beings!" I can see how you would think this, but that is why it is a social experience. Humans learn better in groups, as opposed to being alone, and for this reason children will go about their subjects with other students. They will be learning team building skills while learning how to conquer the current material. To give a further example of how kindergartners could learn, imagine a spelling game.

                In this spelling game children could use the Kinect feature  and actually interact with the letters. They could pick them up and physically build words with them. This would teach them proper grammar, build their motor skills, and help with social interaction all at the same time. Another example of a game could be a physics oriented simulation. The kids are presented with a level where a door needs to be opened. On this door is a pulley system with a tray on it. The kids need to work together to gather blocks to put on the tray and lift the door. This teaches them both how to work and communicate together and how to grasp basic physics. The power to learn, and learn rapidly, is why society should care.

                This is where the future of teaching is going. It is moving towards more interactivity and the wide spread distribution of knowledge. For example, if a child gets stuck for a certain period, a YouTube video would come on showing hints on how to solve a certain problem. I know when I get stuck with my homework, the first place I turn to is Google, then the second is YouTube. Right now though, it is a clunky affair to sift through all of the useless sites and find actual gems of help. This interactivity is another reason how video games would help in the learning process.

                These are some examples how video games are evolving to help be a form of storytelling and a force for good. They do not have to be a waste of time and can be something constructive. But for this to happen they need to be embraced by the masses at large and seen as a good thing. I look forward to the time when video games achieve this level of teaching and I feel that we, as a society, are better for this new breed of video game.