CHILDREN should be taught to play computer games as part of the school curriculum, teachers will be told at an international conference in the Capital.
Leading academics will make the case for dedicating more classroom time to football-management simulators and car-racing titles amid claims they help to improve pupils’ social skills, problem-solving abilities and eye-hand co-ordination.
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dustry insiders, including the designers of controversial worldwide hit Grand Theft Auto, will also address more than 230 delegates from across Europe and as far away as Canada at the Royal Museum’s Game On conference starting tomorrow.
Researchers with Bristol’s NESTA Futurelab, which examines how digital technology can impact teaching and learning, will suggest that youngsters learn much more from computer games than just IT skills.
NESTA Futurelab’s Ben Williamson, a former teacher, will try to convince educators that computer games can motivate reluctant pupils and even improve literacy without children even realising it.
He said: "There’s a whole culture surrounding games which we need to tap into.
"Getting kids to read books in the classroom is incredibly difficult but they will read sophisticated gaming magazines and websites that support them.
"If you think about playing a game on a PlayStation with 12 buttons - there’s hundreds of different commands.
"People learn from their mistakes. If it doesn’t work they reflect on it and think ‘how can I do it better’.
"Games also provide an opportunity for children to seek out and pursue their learning without being prodded in a certain direction."
He said children sharing experiences and tips helps to improve communication skills and often breaks down barriers between age groups.
But Mr Williamson stressed modified school versions of existing entertainment software were likely to be most effective. Otherwise he said there was a danger of children simply "laughing off" obviously educational games.
He said adding best-selling town-planning game Sim City 3000 to the curriculum would enable children to inadvertently learn about topics including engineering, mathematics and economics. Bristol University Professor Angela McFarlane is expected to back up Mr Williamson and claim that the stereotype of the "isolated lone gamer" seldom exists in reality.
She was recently part of a team which quizzed 800 children and their teachers and parents on what young people learn from games ranging from Age of Empires II and RollerCoaster Tycoon to Championship Manager and The Sims.
Prof McFarlane found that educators recognised a "long list of highly desirable skill sets" were developed by playing games.
She added: "It seems the final obstacle to games use in schools is a mismatch between games content and curriculum content."
But Russell Kay, the developer behind ultra-violent gangster game Grand Theft Auto, today admitted that most software manufacturers were unlikely to shift their attention from the lucrative mass market towards niche educational products in the near future.
Mr Kay, managing director of Dundee-based games company Visual Sciences, said: "We are not educationalists.
"Games need to be entertainment to start off with but they can be educational in the same way a film is educational."
On Thursday Mr Kay will speak about the major skills shortages plaguing the gaming industry. Eleanor Coner, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, today backed the use of games in schools but stressed they could not be considered a replacement for proper teaching.
She said: "I think they’d be a useful tool in the classroom. Not only do they give you skills they help children use their imaginations and are quite social as well.
"There’s a place for it but like everything else to do with IT, it shouldn’t be everything."
Although some Capital schools do use specially designed educational games for computers in the classroom, Edinburgh City Council’s education department will be sending representatives to the two-day gathering.
A spokeswoman said: "These educational computer games can motivate learning and particularly grab the attention of reluctant learners.
"We’ll be seeing if there’s anything new that can come out of this conference.
"There may be computer games themselves which can benefit pupils."
The full article contains 710 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
