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Technology at our Fingertips:
Computer Games as “Experiential” Education
The Direct Connection | Student Choice
The Direct Connection
One of the most appealing aspects of using computer games as learning tools seems to be the direct connection between the student and the educational material that they foster. In The Oregon Trail, for example, the student reads the information that is presented on the screen, chooses between and interacts with characters, and is charged with making all of the decisions relevant to the game. Rather than read a book about the trail listen to a teacher lecture about the history of the trail, The Oregon Trail ostensibly makes history come to life, allowing the student to experience life on the trail from a first person perspective. As Bill Bigelow points out, “CD-ROMs seem tailor-made for the classrooms of tomorrow” because “they are hands-on and ‘student-centered’ (1). While the experiential nature of the games might seem appealing, the effect of “student-centered” games on those who play them might benefit from further examination.
Games like The Oregon Trail offer a hands-on, experiential approach to learning.
(Image courtesy of Globalnet. Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved.)
Student Choice
“For many of our testers,” writes software reviewer Elizabeth Razzi, “the Oregon Trail has been a popular fantasy destination since third grade” (2). Indeed, The Oregon Trail allows students to—at least hypothetically—remove themselves from their present-day lives and assume the characters of pioneers who supposedly “actually crossed the trail” (3). However, with this charge comes a certain amount of responsibility. Students are not only asked to name the members of their party; they buy supplies, choose the time of year for their journey, and, as one reviewer boasts, meet some of the “over 200 characters...along the trail, with 1,700 dialogues portrayed by 80 actors” (4). Players pilot the game in a point-and-click fashion, navigating through the scores of information stored at various points along the journey. However, the game’s appeal seems to come primarily not from the factual information it offers; after all, encyclopedias and videos provide comparable methods for imparting information to numbers of students. Instead, it is through the choices the student makes—the “experience” of being a frontiersman—that real engagement takes place.
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"The Oregon Trail was the game that I played in elementary school. I didn’t really learn anything from the game, just that you basically had to buy a bunch of food, survive, not get sick, cross rivers, and definitely not get your cows sick.
Randall, sophomore |
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