Video Games for Learning
Course
Games Build Our Resource Management Skills [6:41]
https://players.brightcove.net/2566261579001/HyuWsfFhb_default/index.html?videoId=4562575287001
About
When we play a video game, we are constantly thinking about managing our resources. Limited resources force us to make tough decisions. And those tough decisions make game play more interesting.Transcript
When we play video games, we build our resource management skills. And when faced with limited or scarce resources, we're forced to be conscious at all times of how we use those resources, and often forced to be creative in the solution that we find. Resources in this case can include materials that you're using, the time you're given to use the materials, or even the known locations or sources of information that you have, such as, in the case of making dinner, a recipe book or what access to different cooking materials, including the ingredients but also the pots and pans and those sorts of tools as well.
When we play a video game, we are constantly thinking about managing our resources. If we had an unlimited number or resources, then we could sort of collect anything we wanted and it wouldn't matter. There wouldn't be any reason to worry about those resources. It's when they are limited that we're really forced to make tough decisions. And those tough decisions make game play more interesting.
If we're overwhelmed with choice, then we simply choose the easiest thing. If I have 500 different weapons to use over the course of a video game, most likely, I'm only going to use one or two that I really, really like. But if I have a limited number or limited ammunition, or something along those lines, it forces me to think about each and every choice that I'm using, to discern over which is the right tool for the job.
Stress forces us to think quickly and to make, potentially, irreversible decisions. Most importantly, stress causes us to not be too precious of our resources. So you have this great thing going on in video games where you have periods of stress and periods of rest. In the periods of stress, you need to think quickly. In the periods of rest, you can sort of re-evaluate your resources and get things on the line and think about how you'll approach the problem again.
In the popular video game, Mario Kart, holding on to items is the way that you manage your resources. You're only allowed to hold one item at a time to use against your opponents, but you're constantly going over item boxes where you potentially could get a better item. So you have to think about, "Is the tradeoff worth it? Hold on to the item I have until I absolutely need it? Use the item right away? Trade the item for whatever chance I might be getting in the next box?"
We are using our resource management skills constantly, while also trying to win a race. There's stress to a gamer that is necessary to keep things interesting. Stress to a gamer drives the gameplay. Stress to a gamer requires constant attentiveness and rapid decision making. Stress to a gamer yields understanding stress management from a more positive perspective.
Think about those times when you've been so angry perhaps, or you just wanted to throw something across the room, or you wanted to tear up the sheet of paper that you were working on. That obviously isn't always the right decision to make, but in a video game, we're faced with stressful situations all the time. And so it sort of allows stress to become part of the norm and allows coping with stress to become second nature.
Let's take what we've just discussed about managing resources in games and let's consider what this could look like in your library. In my library, my fourth graders do units on natural disasters in collaboration with their classrooms. We use a tool, a video game, called Stop Disasters which was created by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. And in this game, you're given a scenario where a disaster is about to happen and through your limited budget, you have to protect your given area, a town, a village, as best as you can from this impending disaster, from a tornado, from a flood, from a tsunami.
You have to work under the present parameters that are monitored as the player develops this scenario. It tells you the threat is getting stronger or that you have created enough housing for people to get to safety or to have an early warning. It's giving students' feedback all the time, but there is that impending stress that this disaster will happen and things will get worse in a moment so you need to start thinking on your feet. And you have this limited budget so you really have to think about, "What would be the best investment of my money in order to save the most lives?"
There's another game that we use in the same unit that is on the website, Ready.gov, which is a government website for FEMA. And FEMA for kids has a great game called Build a Kit in which, once again, you're put in a stressful situation. And this time, it's time for you to run out of your bedroom, what eight items are you going to grab lying around your bedroom that would best suit you in a natural disaster for an emergency kit? And it goes though a number of different scenarios: you're in your kitchen, you're in a store, and over and over, asking, "What are the few items that you're going to bring with you that will help you survive in this disaster?"
Giving the parameter of limited resources, forces us to think more critically about what we're going to do. Imagine what that could be like in any library lesson where we have the time that we're going to give our students to do the work or to perform this task but we're going to limit the resources that they can use. They can only spend 10 minutes on this computer site to do their research or they can only spend this much time developing this resource.
By limiting that, by communicating it to them, it's sort of amps up the scenario and forces them to think on their toes. And that produces a better learning environment because we're thinking so critically about what we're doing and we are aware of the choices we have to make, and whether or not that impacts us in a positive or negative way.
Activities
Gaming requires ongoing attention to managing resources such as time or items and the related management of game-induced stress. Both of these skills have useful application in the school library setting. In the fourth grade example provided in the lesson, students use two games to learn about disaster preparation. Students must consider time, budget, priorities, and unexpected information or events.
Two games/simulations are described in this lesson: Stop Disasters! by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and Build a Kit by FEMA/U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Visit one or both websites (found in Resources below) to try these games. Following your experience, reflect: what was the experience like? Could these games, or perhaps something similar with a different topic, have potential application with your students?
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction,
http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/
FEMA / U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
https://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit
Entry ID: 2122885
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MLA Citation
Winner, Matthew C. "Video Games for Learning. Games Build Our Resource Management Skills [6:41]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1985415?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903.
Chicago Citation
Winner, Matthew C. "Video Games for Learning. Games Build Our Resource Management Skills [6:41]." School Library Connection video. November 2015. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1985415?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903.
APA Citation
Winner, M. C. (2015, November). Video games for learning. Games build our resource management skills [6:41] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1985415?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1985415?learningModuleId=1980803&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 1985415