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What Can Gaming Teach Us?
January 15, 2016 by dracs
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Nice to hear from you sam :).
I think games are brilliant for education.
As an example my dad has recently started gaming with me at 75 and he has alsheimers and slight demetia. I have been reading rules to him and playing 40k bit by bit, we had our first full rule game on new years day.
on Wednesday the 14th of jan 2016 he had a reveiw at the doctors and his memory etc has improved due to gaming :).
The dice maths and tactics, reading new books etc has helped him greatly improve his mind, so it will be great for young minds.
Plus what a fun way to learn instead of text books!!
nice one Sam making education fun would probably make more kids go to their classes to learn. same in the house they will probably remember more of what the are doing if they don’t think of the rules of the game as an exercise but as part of playing.
Yep learned a massive amount through directly playing war games in my what I suppose people call the formative years now. I would actually say that the playing of wargames in schools I attended had a massive effect upon my schooling. In many ways an almost religious chant in some retail outlets stating the math learned, the social interaction, learning to research, dexterity skills and an attention to detail, oh and did I mention social skills. Such was once the mantra of GW stores the length and breadth of the country, even had school leagues and people introducing it directly into schools. Before anyone gets the wrong idea that I am complaining then you could not be further away from the answer. I applauded their efforts as a company. Yes it got kids to want their products. No one has gone as far in our hobby as the GW company specifically to introduce the use of such games as educational aid. I never played any GW games at school all of our gaming was historic. No one would have wanted to play with elves and the such fantasy simply did not exist in our after school clubs.
Can I say as a gamer and a teacher that I salute you mate. Weirdly for me though the most useful mechanic has been polyhedral dice 🙂 I’m and English teacher and often have to get people to engage in discussion, or ask people to give presentations. These days I often roll a D20 and if your number comes up you’re up first. No more teacher picking on me, no more hiding behind the unraised hand (if you use it in discussions).
Actually I think it goes beyond that. Gaming is when we (a group) decide to follow a set of rules in order to determine an outcome. As a metaphor for life itself there’s a lot going on there.
So, of course use games – they can be brilliant. And @sam – can I wish you the best of luck on one the most fulfilling journeys you will take. Teaching is all kinds of bad at times… but there’s nothing better.
Make sure that you roll those d20s at random intervals while students are doing work an chuckle ominously to ramp up paranoia in the classroom, especially while doing marking. ;p
hello Sam. I al;so use games to teach lots of stuff to mu 3 years ol;d daughter and best thing is to roll dic, counting and adding 2 dice rols, d 20 and d6 to give you morre portunity but also conswquences. pure awesomnes.
It’s so good to read an article like this. As a teacher of at-risk students and an avid gamer, I’ve been very intrigued with how to integrate games into my classroom. Very cool to hear from you @dracs.
We need a “our sam in japan vlog” thumbs up to make this happen #backstagerpower hehehe
I may have to send home for my video camera now 😉
I have a mild form of dyslexia that mainly effects numbers for me, making maths very problematic for me. I had special schooling to deal with the reading and writing side but I responded poorly to exercises that were ment to reinforce the numbers side of it.
There was a huge turn around when I was 10 and started gaming. Having to think about maths, stats and probability near constantly to the point where I finished school with a decent grade in higher level maths.
I did have a funny moment in college when we had to get a new maths teacher mid course. On his first day he gave us a test to see how we stood. He called for me to stay at the end of the next class and wanted me to explain how I managed to get some of the basic questions wrong while being only one out of two people in the class to get the hardest question right.
I genuinely have gaming to thank for the two degrees I have that I will never use, on the plus side there is a time and place for everything. It’s called college. 🙂
I was going to go with
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!
But maybe I haven’t properly understood what the article is about
@torros: You’re thinking of ‘What can pulp fantasy teach us?’, this article is about what *gaming* can teach us.
😉
Not just board games but all games are great in education. I’m a primary school teacher currently working in Beijing and I am constantly using this as a tool. Another great lesson or 2 is for kids to make their own board games. Rule writing, instructions all amazing ways to improve English skills and use. Keep up the good work mate. It’s a hard job but life changing.
It’s these kind of thoughtful articles that, for me, makes BoW an essential element for anyone interested in any aspect of wargaming. Well done, Sam!
I used games as a teaching tool with some badly behaved teenage boys years ago. We were studying the ECW period so I took in some armies and we replayed some of the battles. This forced them to think tactically and use critical thinking, as well as literacy and numeracy skills. As a result they became very keen on the subject, reading up on the period and getting very enthusiastic about learning. An extra bonus was that three of the boys are now dedicated table top gamers…
My son has been taking in world war 2 history due to playing Bolt Action. This meant that he wanted to visit Bovington Tank Museum which was a fun and bonding experience. The teachers commented on how much my son seemed to get out of a trip to the imperial war museum recently and he’s been talking to his grandad about his war time experiences.
He also got a commendation for a presentation homework piece on vikings and now we’re playing SAGA to try and encourage that interest in the period.
I am going to sit him down with the Saga rules and ask him to teach me it as a comprehension exercise too.
Gaming is generally positive and board games especially bring families closer together.
My son hasn’t invested much time in it yet, but the hobbying side of games will also nature artistry and creative thought I hope. Strategy and problem solving skills also get tested in game.
Computer games and particularly the multiplayer games seem to have darker influences. “kicking” people from groups for not playing the games or levels someone else wants to play. Being completely win driven in an ugly way and lack of team work and sportsmanship (even in what is meant to be team related games) seems very prevalent. It seems like an extra avenue for school bullys to invade your liesure time and creates added peer pressure to get the latest games and add-ons.
Great article. Long live gaming.