Education Is No Game — Oh Wait, Yes It Is

By Akela Talamasca on January 12th, 2010

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The Quest to Learn school in Manhattan, New York is only a few months old, but its student body is extremely dedicated to learning its curriculum. Part of the reason for this has to be the fact that all of its lessons are presented via video games.

Quest’s game designer and technology professor Katie Salen says “Games are exceptionally good at engaging kids. They drop kids into complex problems where they fail and fail, but they try again and again.” Among the topics being studied are math, English, health, social studies, science, and of course, game design. The key to success for Quest’s 72 students are learning lessons through hands-on play in a social context.

Whether or not this approach will prove viable remains to be seen, but Department of Education director Gregg Betheil is optimistic. “We need new ways to create a passion for learning. The planning has been extremely thoughtful. It seemed like a chance worth taking.”

As a lifelong player of video games myself, I’m of two minds about this approach. First, these are obviously custom-built games designed to teach very specific concepts within the school itself. Second, it’s true that, as Mr. Spock has famously said, “The greater the intelligence, the greater the need for play”. However, I wonder if any thought is being given to teaching these kids how to think of real-life problems as video game puzzles that need to be solved? Will the concepts still carry over when presented in a non-game context? The world of the video game is a safe one, where rules are followed and players have special powers. Is Quest helping prepare kids for the real world, or will this training collapse under the weight of reality?