4 Reasons Why Gaming Must Be Used in Education
2. The Quiet Bat-People Hypothesis
This is going to be quite unorthodox, but Id like you to imagine Batman. Dont pretend you cant. Youre on WhatCulture, for Gods sake. We live and breathe Batman up here. Ok, now youve imagined your own Batman, imagine his constituent parts; what makes him up. Make no mistake, Bruce Wayne is composed of multiple, separate identities. Hes a billionaire, a son, the chairman of a corporation, a friend and last but not least, the frickin Batman. Each one of these roles has unique pressures, and requires him to don different personas based on different situations. He cant walk into the boardroom dressed as Batman any more than he can fight crime whilst acting the playboy. He is capable of being different people, all at the same time, whilst still existing as a unified whole. The point of this is that a person isnt just one simple thing; they are lots of different things, and these identities are juggled based on what situation in which the individual find themselves. So in this way, you are similar to the Batman. But dont get too excited- so is everyone else. With this in mind, its possible to argue that when a teacher steps up to take a class, they are entering a room full of Bat-people, if one were to replace the desire to fight crime with an urge to dick about instead. They too possess duplicitous identities; they are pupils, siblings, children and they might belong to an extra-curricular activity, but this identity adoption is dependent upon the context- for example, in the classroom, the teenager would take on the identity of a pupil. However, the relentless march of technology is wearing down these old certainties. Whereas in the 1950s one would have no choice but to adopt the student identity, the discreet presence of technology in the classroom has inexorably linked the student to the world outside those four walls. Nowadays, just because a pupil is present in the classroom doesnt necessarily mean that they are engaged in the motions- when one has the ability to buy items, communicate with friends, check the news and of course, play games on an item no bigger than a slice of toast, the temptation to chuck the student identity out in favour of these social or fantasy ones can be over whelming, especially if given the correct motive (read: ennui) to do so. For example, I used to have a history teacher who wasnt terribly interesting. His lessons were dull, and he didnt engage us at all, and those who passed the exam did so by constantly reading the textbook. But one day, after numerous read-throughs, I became bored of that same old set-up, so under the guise of doing more work, I took my laptop out of my bag, hid the screen and started playing Football Manager. This wasnt an isolated occurrence, and it was only through resourcefulness and bare-faced lying that I was able to get away with my charade. The point of that little aside is this; technology is incredibly destructive when youre bored. It cost me a grade on my History A-level, and this was in the days before wireless was in all classrooms and smartphones were as formidable as they are now. These days, one can be much more subtle, and thats a terrifying thought for educators everywhere. Loading up Angry Birds on your iPhone is much more discreet than whacking a laptop on a desk and making excuses. Such a capability makes it mandatory to engage with these jaded learners on their own terms, if only for the consequences of not doing so. This advancement of technology has led us to an ultimatum; innovation has led to the point where technology can be distracting yet discreet enough to require a radical rethink about its use within the current educational context. We need new ways of incorporating these new-thinking people into the framework, or run the risk of losing them forever. Make no mistake, this problem isnt going away, and it will only get worse with technologys continued progress. N.B- If you got the The Thick Of It reference, well done you.