( Photo: Craig Stadnyk )
Researchers at Athabasca University in Alberta may have just taken conventional learning to a higher level through the use of video games.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to explore the human body first hand instead of just reading about it from a textbook? Or have Freud explain his theories to you?
Researchers at Athabasca have been testing video game technology for nearly a year and a half and are hoping to use this new cutting-edge technology to immerse their students into what they learn.
“This technology is very new,” said Rory McGreal, the university’s associate vice-president of research. “The use of video games as a source of education in this distance-education school has been tested, but in a limited way."
For instance, psychology students at Athabasca can learn Freud’s theories through Freud-bot, the virtual guide.
“It is an artificial intelligence that guides students through Freud’s theories virtually,” McGreal said.
Gaining knowledge through the immersion into the books has been very effective in developing skills first hand.
“The U.S. Army trains using video game technology. It is a big army and this technology shows its effectiveness,” McGreal said. He cited the recent example of a pilot who flew a plane down safely into the Hudson river, as the pilot had likely practiced such an emergency landing already in a virtual environment.
There is, however, a downside to this innovation, McGreal said. “To create games is really expensive. We would need a collaboration of universities to develop these games.”
As technology continues to develop, learning through video games will gradually become more “human-like.”
“We want to work with the gaming community to make games that grab people’s attention and at the same time teach them something,” McGreal said. He said he hopes the games will be effective and not just “shooting and blowing things up.”
McGreal said “learning through games will be much more popular than classroom learning,” however, he is not claiming that this is the future of education.
“I hesitate to call it better. It’s different. I’d caution that this type of learning is not for everybody.”
Some students still prefer to learn in the classroom and everyone has their own method of learning. For some students, playing video games may just be the way to help them develop new skills that conventional teaching strategies would not be able to teach.
Athabasca researchers are looking for new ways to apply this technology. It is already compatible with computers, but they are looking into how they would be used on mobile devices such as the iPhone or new third-generation phones.