How Video Games Can Level Up the Way You Learn | Kris Alexander | TED

TL;DR

Video games can enhance education by catering to different learning styles, providing motivation, and offering clear objectives.

Transcript

When I was in senior year university, this was around 2004, I was in one of those classes where the teacher would read the slides word-for-word as part of a three-hour lecture. Oh. Oh, you all know what I'm talking about? (Laughter) I ended up doing alright in the class by catering to my own learning style. After a little bit of experimentation, I ... Read More

Key Insights

• 🕹️ Video games can cater to different learning styles and engage students by providing a complex blend of audio, text, video, and interactivity.
• 🎮 Video games can enhance motivation in the classroom by immersing students, focusing their attention, and providing clear objectives with demonstrated output.
• 💻 Effective online instruction can be found in unlikely places like YouTube streams, Netflix programming, and platforms like Amazon's Twitch.
• 📺 Twitch, with its average of 2.78 million concurrent viewers in 2021, can be used as a platform for learning diverse skills, from painting to coding to cooking.
• 🎮 Video games can be used in education to teach complex concepts like history, sexism, racism, corporate culture, and tokenism, merging theory and practice.
• 🌐 Online instruction can be improved by adopting the processes used by popular streaming platforms to engage students globally.
• 💼 Post-secondary education should focus on helping students obtain jobs in their field of study, and video game industries offer various career opportunities.
• 💡 Education can learn from video games by providing clear objectives, connecting passion with profession, and utilizing the engaging components of video games in classroom instruction.

Questions & Answers

Q: How can video games cater to different learning styles in education?

Video games, with their combination of audio, text, video, and interactivity, can cater to different learning styles. For example, oral learners like the speaker can benefit from using the teacher's voice as a soundtrack while playing a game, helping them engage with the information more effectively.

Q: How can video games enhance motivation in education?

Video games, at their best, can immerse students, focus their attention, and provide clear objectives with demonstrated output. This sense of progress and achievement motivates students and keeps them engaged in the learning process. It also allows for simultaneous teaching of multiple concepts, making learning more dynamic and interactive.

Q: How can online platforms like Twitch be used for effective instruction?

Platforms like Twitch, with their large viewer base, can be utilized for effective online instruction. Students can learn various skills, such as painting, playing piano, coding, and cooking, by watching others perform these activities live. This interactive and engaging method of learning can be applied to different subjects and foster global learning communities.

Q: How can education benefit from embracing the components of video games?

Education can benefit from incorporating the engaging components of video games in teaching. By creating instructional materials and methods that resemble video games, educators can tap into the three billion video game players worldwide and enhance student engagement. Clear objectives and a complex story interwoven with learning content can make education more effective and relatable to students' passions and aspirations.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker shares a personal experience of using video games to help focus and learn in a lecture.

• Video games are a complex blend of audio, text, video, and interactivity that can intensify focus and motivation in education.

• Online platforms like Twitch can be used as effective tools for learning, and education should embrace the engaging components of video games to enhance instruction.