Log 006 - “Useless Fun”
- Oct 26, 2017
- 3 min read
Games are fine, but what do students learn from games, other than fun?
(SCT Session #07)
It’s depressing when people can be so narrow-minded or jaded as to think that games serve no function other than providing enjoyment.
There are so many level of “wrong” in this kind of mentality, that I don’t even know where to begin.
Fun and Studies/Work are not dichotomous
They are both essential parts of life, and while studying provides obvious knowledge, fun also teaches lessons, if one is willing to look out for it. Maybe playing a board game cannot help a student pass a test, but there are things that a student must learn beyond academic excellence. Things like communication strategies and sociocultural practices are also essential in a person’s life. It is especially true for those who are less-able in terms of achieving certain academic performance.
Manners maketh a man.
Manners and attitude - to be polite, to be able to compromise, to be diligent...
In playing games in a social setting, we learn, in essence, the other side of a language, the meaning and discourse. One can say in perfect accuracy and fluency “I hate you” for losing the game, but is it really alright, both in terms of the situation and of personal, emotional health?
Fun and Studies are both part of life, and having too much of anything (even water), is harmful to achieving a balanced life.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
... and the beauty of games is that we as gamers, like readers reading a book, can instill any meaning onto our experience. With a teacher’s guidance - one who’s willing to play - students can be led to develop positive personalities and have commendable values. Teachers are trusted to modify “boring textbooks” into more interactive, immersing lessons, it is up to the teachers to see value or dismiss a game. If one of the teachers’ expertise is to cater materials into knowledge blocks comprehensible by students, why is modifying a game to suit the lesson any different?
Playing games are perfectly authentic social and communicative settings, where even if the student is not using English to communicate, will be exposed to English instructions and manual; if they are interested in playing, they will ask for your help, better yet, they will find ways to help themselves understand.
Origin of Learning
We should never forget that people learn best when they have motivation or satisfaction. They recall the memory of incidents that bring strong emotions, whether it be joy, disappointment or anger.
As a fellow learner of English - we are forever learning. I recall that English has always been both frustrating and fun. It was frustrating when I didn’t understand it, but it was fun when I could use it to reach understanding with others, whether it was with the people around or with dead poets and authors. English fueled my interest in the people, culture and life around me. In fact, I read fan-written fiction online (and classic or modern literature in the school curriculum) when I grew up. I listened to songs. Then I had presentations in class and hoped to give an interactive, intriguing presentation to my classmates while growing up. Studying was “learning”, but studying was social, interactive and most of all fulfilling and fun too.
The worst kind of teacher is not that he/she can’t teach students anything that they don’t already know, but to stifle or even distinguish any forms of creativity or curiosity that students may have in the subject being taught.
I am an avid gamer, ever since I was four and a half years old. I’m also a fan of anime and manga; I learned much about English and the world not just in school but through interests that I owned.
English is just a medium of learning about the world. Life is interesting; to distinguish any part of it is atrocious and appalling.
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