Creating better citizens through online gaming?

I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who hasn’t participated in online gaming.  My colleagues use acronyms and reference people and places as if there were real while I struggle to comprehend why all the fuss?  I finally realized I began looking for something to save me from the darkness.

Constance Steinkuehler, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studies massively multiplayer online games (MMOs).  No, really . . . this is what she does.  She teaches courses not only on virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, but on Digital Media, Pop Culture and Learning, Critical Education Practice on the Internet, and Analyzing Online Social Interaction.  Her research perspective is grounded in learning sciences and new literacies.  She recently gave a public talk in Madison focusing on how online games might play a role in producing better citizens.

According to the article from The Capital Times, Online games like World of Warcraft can create better citizens, speaker argues,  Steinkuehler researches how participation in online games like World of Warcraft engages the gamer in ways that foster higher level discussion and collaboration.  Beyond the social engagement of players in such a diverse environment (gamers come from all over the world), players must demonstrate a level of inquiry and literacy skills akin to what we as educators hope to cultivate in our future global citizens.  For example, the article quotes Steinkuehler as saying that 65 percent of the discussion among online gamers in discussion boards was evaluative.  In this context, the value attributed to evaluative discussion refers to discussion that requires analytical and evaluative levels of thought, versus discussion that Compare that to the 15 percent found in discussions from the general U.S. population.

I was also compelled by a reference to a Wired Magazine article by Will Wright (Dream Machines), describing the gamer mindset as that of a creator, not simply an explorer or consumer.  Immediately, I began to think of an essential lesson from my upbringing: study hard, get a good job, and earn a lot of money so you can buy a big house and a nice car. While I heard messages of “You should become a productive, contributing member of society,” I’m not sure that those messages cultivated the same creator/contributor mindset found in gamers.  I wonder if contextual activities like those found in online games could be integrated in traditional classrooms, with an outcome of producing a citizenry who is similarly focused on creating, i.e., giving back to society?

While I’m still quite ignorant of how online games work, I’m definitely intrigued to learn more about their educational value.  Thanks to this online newspaper article, I’m left with the following questions and thoughts:

• Do classroom teachers notice a difference in their students who regularly play online games in terms of their ability to discuss, evaluate, and collaborate?
• What are the direct applications of online games in the traditional classroom?
• Since gamers can collaborate with gamers from around the world, can online games facilitate the development of intercultural competence?
• Since we espouse, at least in North Carolina, to prepare “globally competitive citizens, “ then how does research and practice of online games satisfy our curricular needs to meet this challenge?