Video Games in the Classroom

I talk about my mother a lot and rightly I should, she is an enormous influence on and in my life.  As a young girl, she moonlit at Montgomery Wards and got insane deals on electronics, since she worked in the TV and Stereo department.  So, of course we had Atari and Colecovision and the like, and I was an early whiz at Pitfall and most definitely, Pong.   But, in the mid 1980’s, she came home with this really, really weird video game system. I mean I LOVED my Atari and Colecovision and the like, but this was different.  This was a computer.  It was a Commodore 64.

My life has never been the same. 

One of my favorite games of ALL TIME is Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?  My all-time favorite.  I didn’t need to watch the show, I had it on my C64 and could play it to my heart’s content and I learned SO much about the World from my 1987 World Book Almanac, including how to use an almanac.   That’s not all. I made Donald quack at me as I dropped fruit trying to earn money to build a Playground for my nephews in “Donald Duck’s Playground.”  I sharpened my skills playing Jeopardy!, eventually cheating by putting it on pause so I could look up the answers in my World Book Encyclopedia.  I was twice late to school from missing the bus: once trying to beat the Dragon on Forbidden Forest (you have to shoot him through the eye) and once answering the phrase “Ticket Taker” on Wheel of Fortune.  I played Double Dare with my Atari controller and tried to teach myself how to code in 1985 by reading in a book.  I wanted to make a game called “Cedar Point Games” where I made all the games at Cedar Point and rode them (kind of a retro version of Roller Coaster Tycoon).  I was the first student in my fifth grade class to type my assignments on my computer using Bank Street Writer and the first to print them out, on an Epson Dot Matrix printer that took an hour to print out my three page creative writing assignment.   In a nut shell, I have known about the value of education and technology since long BEFORE we played the green monochrome Oregon Trail on IBM compatibles in the Dwight Rich Media Center during seventh and eighth grade and where, because I had experience playing on computers before, my team and I dominated the class tournament.  We ALL made it to Oregon.  

I’m a gamer.  I have been since my C64, and when I got my Nintendo in 1990, that (in my Troy McClure voice) “Sealed the Deal!”  So, in many things that I do, I actually look at it through the lens of gaming in a sense…. “Can I use this in a game?”  How does this help me solve Drake?  And I am serious.  History has helped me solve puzzles in games AND!  AND! I have also done well in school by remembering something that I learned in a video game.  Even the TYPE of games I play: God of War, Uncharted, and Tomb Raider, to name a few are all steeped in history and mythology; things that are definitely of interest to me.  I like RPG’s as well, sweeping epics that make me think and strategize; twenty years later I still haven’t beaten Final Fantasy Tactics.    Video games help make me smarter and I use them with my students because I KNOW that I gain benefit from them, even as an older student, my students will too.    I have even used the beginning scene in God of War to teach mythology to my students and to have an excuse to bring my Playstation to school and hook up to the presenter to play on the sticks (controller) for a while in a larger than life setting.  I could get used to that.  

So to this end, I have two very pertinent, but also still very painful stories about video games in my classroom in China, a society where they have such a poor impression of video games, that their are actual government restrictions on when students can play video games.  Couple that with people who don’t play video games and people who think that they know more than you (for whatever reason) and you get the two stories I will leave here.  The stories are about Minecraft and Civilization 5, two games that I used (or tried to use) extensively in my classes in 2015 -2016 and if given free reign, would use again.

In my second year in China, I had much more confidence in my ability to reach ESL students.  I wanted to try new things, I had job security.  So, I decided to give my World History students an ancient civilization project.  But, I didn’t want to do the staid dioramas or scale models, so as I was thinking one day, I saw this new building video game craze, where people punch on trees, Minecraft.  All my kids played it, so I thought it was a brilliant idea to use this to have my kids make their civilizations as a midterm project for my students.  I even looked up this idea online to see if there was some educational theory behind the idea.  There was (for Civilization, not for Minecraft) and I thought that would CYA for the theory part of the assignment and give me some cover In case anyone questioned the legitimacy of the assignment (https://worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu/4.2/whelchel.html).   I made sure that the students that had been in trouble with technology got permission from the principal in order to accurately do the project.  And then, despite my best laid plans, the shit hit the fan.  

My students LOVED the project.  So much so, that the students failed (in my administrator/biology teacher’s words) to accurately study for other midterms because they had “too much fun playing games in my classroom.”  Regarding one student, a student that failed ALL of his classes (including mine), apparently “a monkey could have done better on his test than Peter.*”  Even the valedictorian didn’t do well; all of this my fault because the students had “too much fun doing my homework.”  I was berated and demeaned and eventually I cried in my classroom  in front of other people and students (second time ever) at the end of the day because I was blamed for the failure of my students in another class - for making learning so interesting that they spent all their time playing “games” and not enough time “doing school work.”

But my experience earlier that day in class was one of the most rewarding days I have ever had as an educator, which is why I was so devastated when I was berated and eventually demoralized about my job.    I was exuberant about the results and will probably spend the rest of my career chasing that high.  The natural high that you get from knowing that your students: One, had FUN doing their work; Two, enjoyed doing the work; Three, learned something doing the work and Four, know that you did your job to the best of your ability.   My students had a ball doing this assignment.  They LOVED it.  They put so much energy and care and excitement doing their work that I, as their teacher, shared my excitement with my coworkers, who were FURIOUS that my students neglected their work for mine.  Mind you, my students were doing: research, critical analysis, thinking historically.  The assignment called for so much more than just “playing a game.”  The assignment was more than recreating just an ancient monument, I wanted to investigate the civilization’s daily lives. In addition to recreating an assignment, my students then had to answer MY questions about their society.  And I was relentless.  I told them initially that I did not want them to spend all of their time focused on the game, but they did of course, however, their grades reflected the care and the attention they put into completing the assignment.  Everyone got an “A.”  One of the best examples I remember is one student creating an RPG in Minecraft about the Maya; in order to advance I had to fight the feathered serpent boss of the level, Quetzalcoatl.  It was creative, it was fun, and the students had obviously done tons of outside research.  When I tell you I was in awe, I really was in awe.  

And let’s talk about the student that failed all of his classes.  Peter did an absolutely fabulous job on the Minecraft project.  His civilization was the Phoenicians, a word that made me laugh every time he said it because he didn’t know how to say it.  The way he pronounced it, I cannot even recreate in words.  But this student, the one that did no work for any teacher (but me) killed his assignment.  And the biology teacher/administrator was so angry that he did my work and not his, that he didn’t even let the student finish and present his assignment since he had to use a computer and was “banned” from using computers because of his behavior issues.  

I mean, I know the reluctance to accept gaming is generational, that they, as older people are set in their ways and belief; that the administrator (and his wife) didn’t and probably don’t understand the power of video games to motivate students.  The fact that I was blamed for making learning fun was downright cruel and petty; I would never get mad at a teacher for doing her job and motivating her students.  But sometimes, even generational sameness don’t make up for the administrator’s lack of foresight and vision regarding this issue.  Sometimes it's just pure hubris.  

In my next job after this one, I dealt with a young white administrator from Lansing, Michigan (ironically) that had no idea what he was doing, and while I digress, that fact is apropos to the next situation.  What is important about our dealings is that I was teaching AP World History the first year after the major changes in 2016, but before the change to “Modern” World History.  Since I was a black woman, he absolutely thought that I had no idea what I was doing (in his mind) and therefore, micromanaged and second guessed every decision I made in my classroom.  When I told him that I would be using Civilization V as a learning tool in my class, he went on to say how he thought it was a great idea and then proceeded to try and steal my idea for a video game class, saying that the idea would best be implemented in an after school club, not class.  When I tried to make him understand what the assignment would be, he cut me off and said he would think about it further.  When he was told that he couldn’t use the game because the Chinese teachers wouldn’t understand video gaming as a club, I was told that I couldn’t use the game in my class.  I left if at that until the end of the school year.  

After a tumultuous year, I was leaving the school and the same administrator was fired.  Knowing that I wouldn’t get fired in the last month of the school year, I put many of the ideas that had been denied me all year into practice.  Because I was not going to be their teacher in the fall, I didn’t want to teach my new 11th and 12th graders anything that might contradict their new teacher; I taught at an AP center and the students “graduated” to the next grade after the AP exams.  Therefore, the last month of my tenure was a “History Through” Unit, where I would use alternative means of learning to teach history: Cooking and Food, Movies, Video Games and Board Games. Using the simulation part of Civilization V, I assigned each student a scenario and had them then compare and contrast their decisions to the actual decisions of the same scenario in history.  Students then had a debrief activity where they answered questions that were directly related to each Historical Thinking Skill that was to be tested on the AP exam, including introducing them to early concepts in Historiography and Historical Lenses (one student chose Religious History and the lens of Christian history to examine the Reformation)  It was a beautiful activity and the students went in with gusto.  While my students were presenting he came into the room to investigate what we were doing in the class.  He began to question my students on the mechanics of the game, as in why weren’t they making certain decisions to “win” the game and trying to be dominate.  My students looked at him confused and at me quizzically, as he tried to subtly take over my class by showing his prowess at the game Civilization.    And that’s when I realized the problem that I had when I broached the idea to him at the beginning of the school year.  He had had no idea what I was talking about.

So, having held my tongue with the administrator all year, the one that had made me feel inadequate in my craft based on his own incompetence and inexperience (and one that I should have checked WAAAAAY earlier in the school year),  I finally said to him.  “That’s not the assignment.  The students are using scenarios.  Not playing the game.  When I gave him the instruction sheet to the project and the debriefing questions, I watched him try to sneak and slip the assignment into his own materials, as he finally shut up and watched as my students used Civilization V to explore higher level historical thinking skills.  I was NOT teaching my students how to play Civilization, but teaching history by using the game Civilization.  Asking my students to think historically and creatively and watching my students cry when I left the school, because they had never been challenged in this manner — they had only been taught through PowerPoints and lectures is another highlight of my career.  

One more example regarding Civilization.  I used this same activity with Peter’s class in the previous example about Minecraft, when I only got to try the tactic for one class period in a controlled setting early in the previous school year about creating colonies.    I asked my students how they thought religions spread, one of my students said, “Trade.”  Taken aback, I asked, “how did you know that?”  He said, “Oh!  From playing Civilization.  I kept playing after you showed it to us.  It’s one of my favorite games.  And that’s how my religion spread, from me trading with other societies.”

That’s all the evidence I needed that my ideas are sound.  Okay, okay, one more.  One of the students that presented Minecraft went to a University Summer Bridge in the US - an English language development course after graduation.   His culminating assignment?  To create something in Minecraft and then make a presentation telling the other students how and why he designed it.  Vindication was mine. 

I don’t need a bunch of theoreticians telling me, a solid Gen X’er, about the power of video games to teach my students.  That sounds arrogant, but is it arrogance when you know and believe in something so strongly that it seems innate?  I know that video games are integral to student learning.  I know because I was taught by them.  I know because I have students that learned to speak English by playing first person shooting games and listening to trash talk from English speaking players.  I know because right now, during Covid-19, that some of those same students are playing video games with their friends and learning things I can never teach them regarding the use of language, since using language in practice with peers is different than using the language in an academic setting.  I know that video games are being used to help surgeons with their fine motor skills for surgery; to help senior citizens with Alzheimer’s, to help military personnel fly drones.  In fact, video games helped me pass my GRE writing section - I wrote about whether video games were art - a topic that I only knew about because I taught a group of Chinese students earlier that summer that wanted to be video game designers and I helped them find all of their articles.  And then we talked about different examples in class.  It seemed like kismet.  

Earlier I spoke about the generation gap about video games, a gap that is slowly closing as more Baby Boomer teachers, those same teachers that were the parents of Gen X’ers, and complained about us playing video games day and night, retire and a new crop of teachers comes to the forefront.  But those games the Boomers complain about are part of my DNA.  Just lately, my mother and I played the Carmen San Diego Interactive Netflix game, and she rolled her eyes as I literally regressed thirty-five years to my seven year old self, sitting in front of my Commodore 64 in the basement of Hunters Ridge, playing Carmen Sandiego.  And just like thirty years ago, I followed the clues and found the VILE Henchmen.    But my mother also sat there and picked the choices with me.  So there is hope yet for her generation.  

And the full circle moment.  Just last month when my former Model UN students were bored at home from “shelter in place” initiatives,  I posted a link to a DOS emulator that can be accessed in China.  And I asked them to play Carmen SanDiego, the same one that I played in 1987.  And I told them to play Carmen Sandiego.  And they adored it.  https://playclassic.games/games/educational-dos-games-online/play-where-in-the-world-is-carmen-sandiego-online/play.  And sure its outdated, but Carmen is about research and thinking globally and isn’t that what you do in MUN?  Plus Chinese students can’t access Google Earth for the updated version.  So we do what we can with the tools that we have at our disposal.

Personally,  this is the most honest I have been with myself about the Minecraft and Civilization incidents.  The reaction by my administrator destroyed me and I haven’t been the same teacher since the incident occurred.  I have been struggling with my confidence about teaching.  I was utterly demoralized when I was reprimanded. I had climbed a long way to get to that point, a hiatus from teaching to deal with depression, living in China to try to rebuild my life and then, to have achieved that type of fragile, but stable happiness just to have your good work, work that you know to be high-quality teaching, completely rejected by your colleagues due to jealousy or bitterness or incompetence or whatever, boggled my mind and set my progress back a lot.  To this day, I still second guess myself, despite knowing that I’m phenomenal at what I do.  I am.  And therein lies the rub.  To live with that type of duality in your mind, to know that what you do works but to but heads against people who think that you are inadequate, or are childish, or unworthy, because it’s not what they do.  

Interestingly, it hasn’t dissuaded me from using video games.  In the television series Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Robert Goren says about the international chess master who lost his mind when the US government refused to let him play chess, “See, that's what happens when you keep people from doing what they do best. It makes them insane.”  And, I refuse to lose my mental stability anymore.  I am so confident that this idea works, that I am willing to risk the wrath of administrators and get fired from my jobs, to teach the way that I want that I know reaches my students.  I don’t know if that’s crazy or what.  I don’t.  I just know that I want my students to learn in the best ways for them.  I’m no martyr, but I am Shanna.  And I guess, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t fight for the things that I believe in. 

Finally, the video at the bottom is me up to my old shenanigans.  

I had my students use Minecraft to recreate the setting of the novel Holes.  This is one of the projects.

*Not student’s real name