Taking the Wii Under the Sea with Year Three: Implications for teaching practice

Most teachers would agree that video games are a great motivator for student learning. However, most do not go further than this. It is important, as teachers that we delve deeply into how video games can enhance learning as well as consider what we can learn FROM them. Video games can teach us ways to make learning experiences engaging as well as allowing students to access ‘point in time’ meaningful knowledge building. The best way to get involved with the video games phenomenon is to just jump in, but start small. I have begun my journey by taking our Wii under the sea with year three.

The idea began while reading a journal article by Ben Williamson from futurelab (access the article here), where they provided a vignette of a teacher using Endless Ocean on the Wii to engage her lower school students in the discovery of fish species. Later, while browsing Big W’s discounted video games what should I come across but Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the deep at a very reasonable price. It was meant to be! For those who are not familiar with Endless Ocean 2, it is a diving game that allows players to swim around and discover various species of fish. This is extended by allowing the player to click on the name of the fish, opening up a window with information regarding the colour, length, general information and a map of where the fish resides. There is also a story behind the game, so that players can progress through the different stages.

This was my small step, using video games to help teach students about fish species where knowledge was delivered at a logical point in time. And it works! I expected arguments over who was going first, at least a whinge of ‘why do I have to stop now?’ when a new fish was discovered, but no! All of them were so engrossed in entering the information in their ‘dive logs’ that I didn’t hear a peep. Even the reluctant writers and ESL students were powering along to the best of their ability. My next step will be to use the information in their dive logs to do maths activities with statistics and data representation. I am helping them make their learning explicit.

So what are the implications for my teaching practice? I will not underestimate the power of video games to deliver learning in a way that students understand. I can extrapolate from our experience with the Wii that engaging tasks need to be interspersed with knowledge building at a logical time for students to make sense of it. This does not just have to be related to video games. It can help me develop learning experiences that have the elements of ‘good games’ that allow students to extract the most out of the experience.  James Paul Gee is an advocator of what we can learn from video games to enhance our own practice. See my post

'Surmise the Possibilities' with James Paul Gee 

to learn more about him and his beliefs surrounding video games and learning.

As a Teacher-Librarian, there are other implications for me also. The role of the TL is evolving and it is often this person that introduces new educational technology and practices to the teachers. We have a responsibility to raise teacher’s awareness of what is available to them and how it can be used to assist them. For some, raising awareness might be enough, but others may need a whole lot more guidance and one-on-one interaction to fully understand and implement new technologies in education. This impacts on TLs as they need to be fully versed in educational technologies, such as video games in order to fully educate the teachers involved. On top of this is the resourcing component also. The TL needs to ensure that resources are available for teachers to use video games in learning and close consultation with the principal and IT technician or specialist is beneficial.

Not all teaching implications are positive, though. What are some of the negative implications for teaching where video games are involved and how can they be overcome? The first implication that comes to mind is ‘are we spoiling children for the other types of learning that is required in the classroom?’ It would be close to impossible, especially at this early stage to create a full curriculum of learning based around video games (and some would say, inadvisable). So, are teachers going to encounter difficulty when presenting explicit instruction or facilitating rote learning? (we won’t get into the pluses and minuses of this, just acknowledge that it occurs in classrooms). Will students become difficult to teach and manage because the teaching and learning is not living up to their expectations? Is this already occurring? Based on their gaming experiences at home, are students already voicing and acting out their displeasure with a type of learning they believe does not suit their needs?