video games in class teaching

Gee and Henry claimed that video games should be used in school education. They believed that schools didn’t offer what students wanted to learn, and even violated the way they learned – but games did. In the speech Gee mentioned that video games triggered a part of brain, which helped people to process information more deeply. Besides, he claimed, video games made students work together as a group and work harder. Students seemed to be more engaged in games than traditional textbooks. With video games and the motivation and monitor of teachers, students would study more productively.


I think it’s necessary and important to add more videos in class teaching. I agree with the professor in the video that the education in schools today should be designed for 21st century. That is, educators should also pay attention to the changes of the society, so the students they teach will be accepted in the future. Actually, I am interested in teaching with technology, especially video and audio technology. That’s the main reason I went back to school and chose this major. In my past teaching, I felt since there was not enough technology support, the teacher had to try very hard to motivate and keep the class interesting. Sometimes I tried to make out simple programs to help students to practice Chinese, but all I could do was very limited. Most of time, I just went to find some resources (music online, videos on youtube, movies) and added them in my class, and I wish I could do better on that part. I don’t think that adding videos or video games would “kill reading”, on the contrary, if the teacher can successfully motivate the students in class (which is usually 50 minutes), they will probably spend more time on the subject back home – that is what teachers want.


Also, I don’t agree that videos will be dangerous for students. I think it’s natural and actually necessary for teachers and parents to worry about that. But the thing is, the society is progressing, and technology will be more and more handy to kids. When cellphones just became popular, parents and teachers worried that students would become hard to control. When internet just became popular, they worried too – some unhealthy information on line would mislead kids. But the thing is, the trend of new technology is so powerful that it has changed the way of people’s behavior. So what educators and parents should do is to be a part of it, and more important, to learn how to use it in wisely. For example, video games are popular among students, and it does improve studying progress, then as educators, we should study how to make good video games to lead students to learn. Luckily, now I am working on a Chinese video game for my department. I believe it will help more and more people to like and learn Chinese language and culture.