This document discusses how gaming culture can be harnessed for educational purposes. It notes that while some view gaming as unproductive, games actually teach important skills like problem solving, collaboration, and perseverance. The document suggests that teachers and parents get involved in gaming to understand gaming culture and how games could be used to engage students. By incorporating gaming principles into lessons and playing games with their kids, older generations can foster learning while connecting over a popular interest.

1. 34 Technology
The good, the bad & the gamer
One way to understand and various ages is important in preventing
an increase in extreme PIU cases.
tackle problematic internet Rather than outlawing gaming
use is for “the oldies” to get and gaming culture, consider what
online and have a go. games have to teach us. Harnessing
these lessons into curricula will turn
By Jocelyn Brewer. a harbinger of a computer zombie
epidemic into a tangible method
T
for seeking solutions to some of the
he behaviour of teens serious issues which face the planet.
over recent years has been If parents and teachers are feeling
changing, most would isolated and confused by the rapid
claim not for the better. advances in technology and “how it
Teachers and parents bemoan the all works” then the best thing they
rise of problematic behaviours in the could do is get online and “play”,
classroom, playground and in the embrace the essence of what playing a
home. game is and feel free to learn, discover
The “naughty” and disengaged boys and enjoy.
show up across the state in welfare If parents give their kids the
and discipline meetings, as the system music and moppish hairdos. Gaming true sense of who they believe they technology, they need to be willing
struggles to find appropriate ways is today’s Beatles, a phenomenon can be. to sit side by side with them and join
of engaging them in learning, while that generally younger people will At the very pointy end of gaming, in the game. Just the same way they
providing discipline structures that fervently embrace, while older folks is pathological and extreme overuse in would kick a soccer ball around the
support this engagement in the school will stand back looking confused. which significant negative impacts are yard with them. There is no turning
community rather than excluding There is no stereotypical gamer, experienced when adolescents cannot the internet off so, if you can’t beat
them from it. in that gaming is becoming so function IRL, like withdrawing from them, join them – online.
While much has been written on widespread, and the games so diverse a drug they experience increased Further reading: Jane McGonigal’s
problematic externalising behaviours and ubiquitous that there is no anxiety, somatic disturbance and Reality is Broken: Why Games
such as conduct disorder and longer a single profile that accurately sometimes aggression and violence. Make Us Better and How They
oppositional defiance disorder, and describes the population. The kids These cases of PIU while rare are Can Change the World or internet
many strategies and programs written we see with PIU in schools tend to increasing, and require intervention search “serious games movement”,
to cater for the support needs of these be those who have become betrothed from psychologists and counsellors “gamification”. n
students, there are a range of students to a particular type of role playing with an experience and understanding
just as disengaged quietly lurking in or shooter game that is played online of the gamer’s world. Jocelyn Brewer is a provisional psychologist
classrooms – gamers. with massive numbers of people, all Teaching 21st century learners working as a school counsellor in South
By gamer I don’t mean spending in the same game, playing in the same also requires teaching 21st century Western Sydney and a founding member
a few hours mastering Angry Birds realm, continuously. skills in regulating their use of screen of www.niira.org.au. Her 2009 psychology
or the 97 per cent of young people Massively multiplayer online games time. Much like with a balanced diet, thesis studied the impact of online gaming
who use a variety of consoles to play (MMOGs) are often maligned by determining what is a healthy amount on learning and leisure in a cohort of year
a range of strategy and educational superficial commentary on a pending of screen time for adolescents of 10 boys.
games. Serious gamers are a new web- epidemic of zombie kids hooked on
subculture who take the online realm these diversions like a drip (some have
Learning to flick a
of game playing more seriously than even drawn comparisons to heroin
reality. They inhabit the immersive and crack cocaine).
environment more frequently and In fact MMOG’s provide exactly
energetically than in real life (IRL). the kind of positive psychological
While game playing is a pursuit environment required to harness The new three Rs a quick scan of information streams
that is several thousand years old, the their strengths and develop skills in connected to educational issues both
specific language and culture of the problem solving, strategic thinking, of leadership are in Australia and overseas.
internet is only a few decades old; the collaboration and even hard work! reacting, ranking and These e-sources are scheduled into
nexus of these two form the online While we hand out laptops to year my Google and Outlook calendars
computer gaming realm which has 9 students in NSW public schools,
recommending, writes as recurring appointments and
emerged as this decade’s freshest area many teachers struggle to keep up Mark Sparvell. the various links are always in the
W
of debate and investigation. with creating absorbing learning appointment details. Each week I am
The real interest is building activities that compete with the epic hen I deliver reminded to invest in professional
not just on the phenomenon of challenges and adventures found professional learning knowledge building and it doesn’t
internet “addiction” or problematic within MMOG realms. for educators, I am matter where in the world I may be or
internet use (PIU), but on the way The gamer in today’s classroom sometimes asked what device I may be using.
games can be harnessed to engage is not a behavioural problem, he about how I find the time to I flick through the Twitter feeds
us in solving real world problems, (most likely a boy, but increasingly keep up with the exponential from key education influencers
while simultaneously providing girls) is probably asleep at his desk, growth of information. I’m almost that are sent to my phone, scan the
a psychological experience that is having spent until the early morning embarrassed to say, I probably emailed one-page digest from www.
positive, enhances relationships and “in game”, “levelling up” and don’t invest any more time than palnet.edu.au and skim read the
builds confidence and self-efficacy advancing through infinite layers most other professional educators. five or six online sources of credible
in overcoming challenges within the of the game’s architecture (which is I do sample an extremely education journals … much of this is
game. being designed by developers as fast broad sweep of information very achieved while walking the dog in the
It is easy to dismiss gaming as as gamers can play their way through efficiently, though. One of the early morning or cool evening. My
time wasting, and unproductive. Just it) in collaboration with gamers from e-routines I have established for dog has yet to comment that it doesn’t
as in the early 1960s it was easy to around the world, forming alliances myself once a week is to engage in have my full attention.
denounce the Beatles for their poppish and friendships while projecting a
34 May 2012 www.educationreview.com.au