Just_Tom__'s forum posts

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Just_Tom__

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#1 Just_Tom__
Member since 2013 • 25 Posts

Taken the survey.

You might like to look over this too:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/playing-with-education-video-games-in-schools-30913266/#2

Using Video Games in schools will happen a lot more over the next decade I believe, as a way of making learning fun :)

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Just_Tom__

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#2  Edited By Just_Tom__
Member since 2013 • 25 Posts

I have started watching stuff on youtube recently, but not so much gameplay. I found myself drawn to reviews or discussions about games I have finished.

I did try twitch tv a few times but often didn't find much that interested me.

Anyone want to leave any links to youtube or twitch channels maybe? :)

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Just_Tom__

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#3 Just_Tom__
Member since 2013 • 25 Posts

I think that most kids now days know and play video games of some sort, and for those that, like us, have a love of them should be able to learn more about them from the education system. If there was a class teaching basic coding or some kind od design 10 years ago when I was in school, I'd like to think I wouldn't of ended up with a dead end job in Asda (Wallmart).

It doesn't have to be aimed at games either. Basic coding that can be used in a number of ways should be at least touched on in classes. My IT class consisted of Word, spell check and spread sheets.

I'm not saying these are important, but that is a very 80's computer look at things. Now what I mean?

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#4 Just_Tom__
Member since 2013 • 25 Posts

The origin of Video Games is a discussion that's forever up for debate, with each person having a different opinion of what the words 'Video Game' means. It is fair to say however, that it was very smart people, with some very big computers that kicked started it all. Whether you think it's the 'Cathrode Ray Tube Amusement Device' made in 1947, a missile simulator developed based off radars from WWII, or the more publicly know game of 'Pong', a tennis type game made by Atari that is one of the first 'Arcade Games' to be played commercially.

I would find it hard to believe that anyone in the early years of game development, when games were just squares bouncing around a screen on a machine the size of a Smeg refrigerator, knew how these simple games would evolve. The following decades would see that one square turn into whole characters, the solid black background turn into whole worlds. Video Games would become one of the leading industries in creativity, along with Movies and Music, and often rivalling the cost and profits of these too.

Hollywood, for many years, has been creating whole worlds and characters that connect to a large audience, who are willing to hand over their money to sit and watch these films. Films that are set in any time in history, present day or future with people from every race, colour and planet. The past decade we have seen many of these films with an ever increasing cost to make, yet make a profit big enough bring a tear to Bill Gates's eye, (Avatar making $241.6million worldwide over the first 5 days). So it's easy to understand why schools teach filming and editing to children, my first lesson was in high school and the class was to direct and edit a movie that we filmed on a trip to a castle. Safe to say we are not going to be winning any awards any time soon, but we had a laugh and learnt the basics.

Then we come to music, were some of todays artists (and I use the word artist very loosely), are role models for a large number of children and young adults. These are some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. Music however is everywhere. Whether its blasting out your ipod slowly destroying your ear drums, background music on your favourite TV program or used to engross you into the game you're playing. So, much like the Film Industry, music is also taught in schools and often from an early age, giving the next generation the option to learn more, be creative and maybe find a talent that may have been over looked otherwise.

So these are creative forms of learning that has be taken and, embraced by many schools where creativity often is limited. What I mean by limited, is in the form of the lessons that are mandatory in every education system. You go to an English (or the language of the country you are in) and are told that this word means this, go to a Science class and are told 'Why the world does what it does' and 'This is what happens when you do that'. Maths is universal, knowing that 2 + 2 = 4, and that Algebra is a thing pulled from children's nightmares.

So with the exception of Art and Drama (and these are often deemed 'less important') creativity is almost not existent in education. From my own experience, Drama is just reading and acting out scripts or plays that are hundreds of years old and god forbid you change it. Art is the same, we would learn the same techniques that are older then the old bag that is teaching the class. Then, after weeks of shading, painting and learning about colours, she plonks a bowl of fruit on the table, tells you to draw it and are subsequently graded on what you have done. Now before I go into a full blown rant about my old high school (of witch I was booted out of after 2 years), we come to Video Games.

Video or Computer games, are seen by most as a toy, a play thing that children and teenagers play, and seen in the media and news papers as a 'Destroyer of Morals' and 'The Main Cause of Violence in Todays Society', the NRA even saying the Video Game Industry is 'a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against own people', despite them creating their own iOS shooting game for ages 4+.

The past generation (40+) are unlikely to be gamers, with this generation, the age of Nintendo and PlayStation knowing how powerful games can be to give you an experience, a story or way of escape. So why hasn't this power been taken into the class room? Why not take children's fascination of video games and use it to educate them?

Over the past year or two, I have been coming across small articles and stories that some schools are.

In 2006 the BBC reported that Future Lab conducted a survey in the UK of almost 1,000 teachers, 2,300 students and found that 59% of the teachers said they would be willing to use Video Games in class, while 62% of the children said they wanted to use games in class.

It did also show however, that more then 70% of the teachers asked felt that children playing Video Games could lead to anti-social behaviour, and 30% of the children asked said it could lead to increased violence. Whether this is something the teachers researched and made their mind up themselves, or just from reading the negative stories in the newspapers i'll leave that up to you to decide, but the same survey also shows that 70% of the teachers never play video games.

More recently there are ever increasing groups, classes and studies into the use of video games for educational purposes. One video that I found kind of sums up my point well:

Loading Video...

An article on nhregister.com reported that 120 New Haven students from grades 7-8 spent the summer of 2013 at a Math and Science Camp, used video games to help their students learn. The Catalysts Powering Educational Performance (CPEP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income students see their full potential in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The report shows that every day from 9am to 3pm, students would play educational games that involved construction and working with budgets, with the games creating problems they have to overcome using Math such as fractions, percentages and decimals.

You can read the full article here: http://www.nhregister.com/social-affairs/20130826/new-haven-students-bolster-math-and-science-skills-with-video-games

So it seems video games are slowly finding a way into the class rooms, with USA leading the way when it comes to options. A report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) shows a record breaking number of game-related courses in the US, with 385 colleges and universities. Of these 385, 226 offer bachelors degrees, 55 of the educational instructions feature associates degrees, 46 offer master degrees and 4 offer Ph.D.'s. California offers the most with 72 school courses, New York is 2nd with 26, Texas with 24, Florida and Illinois with 23. You can find the full list on ESA's website here: http://www.theesa.com/games-improving-what-matters/schools.asp .

President and CEO of ESA, Michael Gallagher said, ' Video Games are the fastest, most dynamic form of entertainment in the world today, these students are preparing to join an industry that creates interactive software, innovative hardware, and ecosystems that spawn new business models and online communities, transforming consumer experiences, spurring technological advancements, and impacting important areas including education, healthcare, and business."

All this kind of makes me wish I was born 10 years later, as the best advise I got at college was to 'Upload a video to YouTube and hope for the best'. Wasn't long after that comment that I dropped out of that course, and got myself one of those dead end jobs everyone likes to complain about. Despite all that, I can't help but feel good about the future, not only of the games industry, but the education system. As the next generation of children grow up, the 'traditional' ways of teaching maybe just pass over their heads. Lets face it, when a lot of todays teachers were at school, computers were the size of small cars, mobile (cell) phones the size of a Super Size Milkshake from McDonalds and children would play with a hoop and stick.

Ok I may be pushing it there but my point is that with the rate that Science and Technology is advancing, so should the way of Education.

Over the next decade or two, what Science will make possible is anyone guess, but for Video Games it looks good. Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo or PC, with the large per cent of todays children playing games, and a large number of them wanting to learn more about making games I hope to see a large number of amazing games and consoles coming out that will owe it's thanks to the teachers that embraced it.

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