Destroying Creativity: Video Games in the Classroom

By Antony Brouwer

(Students learn different subjects by playing interactive games on their laptops.)

One of the most important goals in education is to develop the creativity of youth. Not only does having the ability to think creatively improve a students work but it helps to keep them engaged in class and in their school work. As educators we have many options to develop our students creativity but it is important to consider what kinds of activities or technologies resonate with modern youth. In todays youth culture there is no more all encompassing technology than video games. While video games in the classroom will always be a controversial subject, recent studies have shown that the benefits can be dramatic. If we can use video games in the classroom to develop our students creativity and to keep them interested in their educational lives is it irresponsible to avoid doing so?

The first problem with understanding video games impact on creativity is quantifying their benefits on an individual. There is a heated debate on the impact of video games and it is often unclear how universal these benefits are. Marc Prensky, in his book Digital Games-Based Learning, touts the myriad benefits of video games. Well structured games, which he admits is not the majority of games, can help improve planning, problem solving, reading, observation skills, introduce and reinforce new vocabulary, and improve mental agility. He continues to say,

"Additionally, case studies have shown that video games can help develop the spatial abilities and basic skills of special-needs kids, including language, math, and reading skills. There are even associated social benefits. Though video games are often played in isolation, they provide a common interest for children to discuss by trading tips and experiences."

Much of the current research on video games demonstrates a wealth of potential benefits; however, a common criticism of video games is that the experience is artificially directed, limiting and perhaps even damaging a learners creative skills. For me, this is perhaps the biggest obstacle in bringing video games into the classroom; creativity is central to a student's development and to make use of a tool, no matter how effective, that negatively impacts a student's creativity would be a grave mistake.

How does a video game affect creativity? Some critics of newer media devices such as the iPad fear that the trend in technological culture is towards "passive media consumption" (Kramer, 2010). As technology develops we as consumers are happy to allows the experience to be crafted for us. The need to experiment and create is lessened when the technology provides everything you need; creativity loses its importance. Some would go so far as to say, "passive media consumption will eventually lead us to a world where nobody will create art, either visual or written" (Kramer, 2010). Video games easily fall into this category, moving away from games where the pleasure is centred around creation, to games where following a preprogrammed path is the only option. Yet within video games there are larger trends that incline towards creative output. The culture behind many video games, particularly online or multiplayer games that have a strong social basis, has taken a passive media experience and developed creativity outside of it. "The dissemination of digital media communication has offered media audiences a wide variety of participatory social spaces and sites for producerly activities" (Dovey, 2007). By playing video games youth culture has developed a social connection in order to discuss, interact, and develop new ideas. Completely outside the game itself is a uniquely youth oriented creative content. This creative content has been taken to varying lengths, often times outside of the realm of video games completely. A type of user created content known as "machinema" is yet more evidence of the close relationship between video games and creativity.

Machinema is "a new form of graphic animation that has been developed by computer game fans and artists. It uses the facility of a game to record its own playing; these recordings can then be stored as video sequences that can be edited and revoiced" (Dovey, 2007). This is just one example of the many ways the fans and players of video games connect themselves to their preferred media. Jon Dovey states in his book Game Cultures, "Fan art production creates a sprawling, vibrant diversity of creative responses to games, from obsessively re-drawing your favourite characters for web posting, to creative alternative 'skins'". Considering video games as a seperate experience from the social organization they inspire is to miss what excites and engages youth in their video games experience. It is a connection to a simple piece of technology that encourages a player to make that game a defining part of their life. Video games may not always directly promote creativity, but the creativity inspired by video games needs to be considered.

The only conclusion I can draw when considering the value of video games in education is that there is a devotion to new media that far surpasses what most youth feel in their educational lives. If that devotion is to be harnessed in any way by educators it is necessary to not only use video games in a classroom but to develop a new kind of technological culture inside of our schools. Video games offer us a first step, bringing the already well established love for games and directing it towards learning, not by reinventing the games on the market, but by showing our students that we take their culture seriously. Allowing ourselves to believe what many youth today already believe without question, there is value in video games and in the associated media culture, and we need to respect and hopefully build on it to reach newer heights of learning.

(An amazingly creative video inspired by a video games.)

References

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