Video Games in the Classrooms

After doing the readings and playing one of the video games I am not sure I am sold. I enjoyed the readings and I thought that the points made were for the most part very true! I remember playing computer games when I was younger and I remember the challenge of a new game but if I had figured out all of the secrets then the game became too easy and I no longer wanted to play. I did not have this same experience when playing Lure of the Labyrinth this evening.

Lure of the Labyrinth starts out with a story of a man losing his dog and going down a drain pipe to find him. He runs into a fairy that helps him turn into a monster to blend in to help find his dog. Then you become this man and your mission is to find the lost dog. You have to make your way through the labyrinth to find the lost dog (I think this is how it works, I got too frustrated to finish). The fairy gave you something that you can use to access hints and maps. This is how you figure out where to go and what your next steps are.

I like the premise of the game and it sounded fun but when I started playing I was annoyed off the bat with the amount of reading it had to set up the story, I realize we are looking at educational games but I think the words should be more worked into the game and not just given like you are reading a story at the beginning of the game. Then I had a hard time with the lack of directions, I did not feel I knew what to do. I think this is supposed to be the problem solving part of the game but it did not appeal to me.

I did like the games that you got to play once you got into the rooms. The lack of directions in these games were very good for helping me to problem solve. There is an option where you can go directly to the games and skip the fumbling around in the labyrinth. I liked that there was this option, it gave me the opportunity to play more games and figure out more about the premise of the entire game.

It has been a long time since I was 10 and liked to play games on the computer so maybe I would find the labyrinth more exciting and I would be able to understand the map more easily if I were 10 but to me the map was confusing and the labyrinth was frustrating (which I do think that is the point). But I did think that the games were educational and fun!!

I am not sure that I would use computer games as a teacher though. As a parent I think it may be a good compromise for children that would rather play video games than do puzzles. But I am not sure how I would work this into my classroom especially for secondary math.