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Using Games Consoles in Learning

Games consoles, such as Playstations and X-Boxes, have been suggested as being useful in learning with young people.  This is because they are seen as technology that young people are familiar with and enthusiastic about. Therefore it is hoped that they could engage young people in learning.

Our research in Hull did not suggest much about whether people think games consoles could be useful in learning.  This is because the idea of using them in an educational way is alien to most people.  However, there were a few interesting findings.

Firstly, although it is often assumed that young people and especially young men will be competent with and enjoy using games consoles, this is not automatically the case.  Some young people said that they did not use them and did not find them interesting. 

Games consoles also tended to provoke a strong reaction, with people tending to love them or hate them.  It would be difficult to persuade those parents who hold negative views that the use of such consoles could be beneficial for their children.

There has been research done into the use of games in the classroom.  The 'Teaching with Games' project used games in different schools over the period of a year, aiming to develop recommendations of how best to use them in the classroom.  Although the games were PC based, all have versions for games consoles, and recommendations related to using those games in lessons are transferable to the games consoles.

The project identified issues that influenced how effective the games were in lessons, and these related to technical issues, school factors, the game itself, the pupils and the teacher.  There was evidence from the project that games can be used to learn in the classroom, and that this can have a positive effect on pupil motivation.

Another example is the work of Ravi Purushotma, who has effectively used the Sims game as a German language learning tool.  His argument is that popular games should be modified to support learning goals. His discussion of the Sims can be found here.