(Ipod speakers) What makes a game educational?
No commentsBy Kevin Tuck
Parents and teachers are constantly thinking about this: When does a computer game become education, and when is it just entertainment?
Are those games really worth spending our hard earned money, time and energy on?
In Music there are all kinds of games: Some of the music games which are available today are nothing more than an evolution of the toy guitar that you’d give a toddler to play with. There are a few that are far more advanced, and are almost close to playing a real instrument.
Where do we draw the line? Most music teachers have a differing opinion on this issue. Most teachers probably won’t be spending much money on music games, they’ll be teaching just like they always have. Some aspects of the games however do deserve our attention, as there is some real educational worth there
This is the question we need to ask before engaging in any game activity: “What is this teaching me (or them, if thinking about your children or your students) that I didn’t know before?”
Learning something is the process of taking something which is unknown and making it known. it really is that simple Are you making anything known that wasn’t already when you are playing that computer game? If you are simply playing one level of one game over and over again nothing will happen except that you’ll be good at that one thing. You’ll really know that one thing, but nothing else.
The music game can be a great educational experience if you constantly introduce new songs and use the game as a vehicle to move forward with your skills.
When developing these music games it is my hope that the developers consult instrument specialists so that learning to play the game does not affect the students technique when learning the real instrument. I believe that most of the game companies do that research, however there is always cheaper versions who cut out the features and cut down on the educational value.
If you always ask this question: What is this game teaching me that I previously didn’t know? Then you’ll find that besides being very enjoyable that time spent on music games will actually build musical skills.
Kevin Tuck, the author of this article is a musician and music teacher of wide experience. In his work as editor at the fun music company he is currently developing educational music games for school students.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 4:40 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
