When the digital is talked about in schools, it’s usually talked about in reference to students learning what are considered ‘practical’ technologies. The SCSA (2017) notes that the scope of student ICT capability should extent to
“This includes conducting research, creating multimedia information products, analysing data, designing solutions to problems, controlling processes and devices, and supporting computation while working independently and in collaboration with others.” [SCSA, 2017].
The concept, however, doesn’t address the digital blurring that is already occurring - the combination of games with reality in trans-modal fashion.
“The average young person today in a country with a strong gamer culture will have spent 10,000 hours playing online games by the age of 21. Now 10,000 hours is a really interesting number for two reasons. First of all, for children in the United States, 10,080 hours is the exact amount of time you will spend in school, from fifth grade to high school graduation, if you have perfect attendance.” (McGonigal, 2010)
In her TED Talk, Jane McGonigal makes a compelling case that Games can be utilised in ways that solve our real world problems - particularly as they are already an integrated part of many students lives, they should be utilised as a tool. In order for students to develop critical thinking skills and higher order learning, they need to be challenged (Killen, 2016, p.57) .By scaffolding this learning and integrating necessary information in a reward scenario, students can benefit from the digital in their real life aspirations. An example that McGonigal utilised is Quest to Learn, an educational endeavour that turns a school room into a fantasy world, where students need to complete their assignments in the form of quests (McGonigal, 2011). Furthermore, the students then need to reinforce the learned knowledge by explaining it back to a basic AI avatar, which ensures that they have learnt the concepts required.
Quest to Learn
Quest to Learn is an outlier in its audacity, but examples that games are a compelling future for education. They have the capability to blur reality with digital in a number of ways, particularly through the use of virtual worlds. These are defined as online communities, which often take the form of a computer based simulated environment (Howell, 2013, p. 209). These act as entry points to the net, and students will usually engage in these through the usage of avatars, a two or three dimensional representation that acts as stand-in for the individual in either a fantastical, anonymous, or realistic capacity (Howell, 2013, p. 209). A simple example of this is Facebook, Instagram or any other popular social media.Virtual worlds are useful in an educational context as they can open the opportunity for more student participation, by removing constraints of scheduling, location and cost, and also increasing the opportunities for scaffolding.
However, Howell notes that the downside is the loss of body language and other personal identifying aspects, even whilst potential anonymity and customisation of identity are increased (Howell, 2013, p. 209). Rather, integration of games could be as simple as utilising Kahoot's! in class, a way of informally assessing student knowledge, to having students construct games themselves around the curriculum content knowledge, using friendly interfaces like Splodder, which is its own virtual community. Students don't even need to know how to code - but if they do, there are numerous free options, and ones that themselves are gamified like FreeCodeCamp.
To conclude, Howell (2013, p. 206) notes that Teachers cannot afford to become complacent, but must ensure that technology is embedded in both teaching and learning. This is in order to maintain and extend the competencies of the students, who now need it more than ever before. As lives are increasingly blurred with digital technology outside the educational context, the only way to prepare students is to show them how to control that process.
References
Howell, J. (2013). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity. Oxford University press.
Killen, R. (2016). Effective Teaching Strategies. (A. Crabb, Ed.) (7th ed.). Melbourne: CENGAGE Learning Australia. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DlDgwcoBCWfnjqcxuH9Sj8_NGBNHUImcmKW2ixCxid8/edit#
McGonigal, J. (2011). Power up their imaginations: Pedagogy. The Times Educational Supplement Scotland, (2241), 26. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/915672148/abstract/523411E6E1924782PQ/1?accountid=10382
School curriculum and standards authority (SCSA). (2017).Information and communication technology (ICT) Capabilities. Retrieved 28 August, 2017, from https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/5157/ICT.pdf