The Gaming Landscape: College Students, Gaming & Learning

spent a lot of time gaming on Plato, very little time spent on it learning

Pew’s funding runs out at the end of this month?!

Background for The Gaming Landscape study:
– paper survey distributed in 2002 to students at 27 higher ed. institutions in U.S.
– 1,162 surveys returned
– online survey randomly distributed among college students at 25 U.S. higher ed.
– observations and interviews conducted at 10 universities

3 categories of games that are not mutually exclusive:
– video games (those requiring consoles and tv sets)
– computer games (that require a PC)
– online games (those that require an internet connection, typically for multiplayer interaction)

what we know:
– 70% of students surveyed reported playing games “at least once in a while” (surprised at the low number)
– 65% of students reported being “regular” or “occasional” game players
– all of those surveyed reported to have played a video, computer or online game at one time or another – THIS NEVER HAPPENS IN THEIR SURVEYS!! tells us something about the integration of games in these kids’ lives

of the 27% of college students who said they do not occasionally or regularly play video, computer, or internet games at all the primary reasons for not playing:
– 20% cited “lack of interest”
– 13% cited “waste of time”

what was interesting is that to them, pulling out your cell phone and playing a game while waiting for a friend didn’t constitute “gaming” for them
only 2% cited a lack of electronic gaming resources (speaks to the issue of access to games for this generation)
– only .5% cited unfamiliarity with games (don’t even know what to do with this number because their margin of error is 3%)

more women than men reported playing computer and online games (60% women to 40% men)
gaming is pretty ubiquitous across racial groups
computer games held a slight edge in popularity (71%); then video games (59%); then online games (56%) – makes sense because of the proliferation of computers
computer games also have an edge over video games and onlien games in time used
daily, twice as many college students play an online (14%) or a computer game (13%) as play a video game (6%)
nearly half (45%) of college students reported going online to play a game (as the sole reason for going online)

69% were exposed to video games in elementary school! online games come as they get older; jr. high/high school and college, move to online and computer games

one of the ways kids move through the types of games and what they play, it’s a deliberate setting for activities
– if I’m home and I’m bored, I’ll play video games
– if I’m online and doing something else, I’ll play an online game
– if I’m waiting for someone, I’ll play on my gameboy or PDA
==> so gaming is becoming slotted into particular activities; understanding this is going to be an interesting effort for libraries to understand when we’re slotted; to do particular things at particular times

when do they play?
– 41% of college student gamers reported playing mainly after 9pm
– I missed the other two statistics

where do they play?
– 31% at parent’s home
– 27% friend’s home
– 23% dorm room
– 2% at the library

in what ways, as children grow, are they still acclimated to libraries?

does gaming impact their academic lives? – got contradictory answers
– 66% said gaming had no influence on their academic performance
– however on another question, 48% agreed that gaming keeps them from studying “some” or “a lot”
– 9% said their main motivation for playing games was to avoid studying

– 69% said they’d never used a video, computer, or internet gaming in the classroom for educational purposes; which means 31% have! (glass half full?)
– 31% admitted playing games that were not part of the instructional activities during class

they want realistic graphics, excitement, interactivity in games
in video games, racing games are far and away the most popular, followed by role-playing/adventure and then arcade games
card games were the predominant interest of both computer and online gamers

implications:
– the most important trend spotted is the integration of gaming into other activities (“multitasking”)
– take time between classes to play a game
– play a game while visiting with friends or instant messaging (other things might be going on in the room, too; it’s not a pure behavior)
– play games as a brief distraction from writing papers or doing other work
– play games when “bored” (regardless of setting)

the younger the student, the more likely they are to play games
they also did a survey of college faculty (when will there be enough faculty that are gamers?)
at what point will there be a “verge” of opportunities for gaming in the classroom?
thinks this divide will maintain itself for a little while longer (among teachers and librarians – in terms of meeting a diverse range of patrons)

is there a gaming divide?
– higher family incomes correlated to a higher likelihood of gaming; everyone experienced it, but the likelihood of frequency goes up with income
– bur race does not seem to be a factor in gaming
– has to do with some of the same digital divide issues (access to technology, resources, etc.)

VICI
– Visualization
– Interaction
– Collaboration
– Immersion
What might it look like?

teaching higher math seemed to make more sense in something like the Cave, which costs $500,000–$1 million for 10’ x 10’; it IS networked, though, so can share environments!
Immersadesk – Lincoln School in Oak Park?!
GeoWall, AutoStereo & Beyond – walls of displays
example of taking you back to the Harlem Renaissance, gain insight into the music and the literature
does information in these types of environments have to hew to some standard of accuracy?
– the accuracy school says if we’re going to recreate Harlem, it must be exact
– the educational school says I don’t want the building where they really were because going from the Apollo to the Cotton Club will be too far for them to traverse
==> when these two groups get together, it’s explosive!

are these fiction or nonfiction environments? do we have standards by which to judge? important for libraries to consider if we’re going to create virtual worlds

– global high-speed networks will have an impact on gaming (there are everquest users from around the world)
– culture and language (bartering, negotiating); might see cross-cultural game trainers emerge
– public support

audience question: have they ever asked how many people are playing board games?
Steve: we did in the second round, but we don’t have that data yet; they didn’t get many responses, possibly because the perception was that the survey was about electronic gaming

audience question: are they looking at data from forums
Steve: no, but others are

audience question: if we integrate the gaming more fully, do librarians become the introducers? we already have a 10–week computer club for middle school kids who don’t even have email accounts
Steve: groups, probably peer-led, are a good option, so keep doing that; when they take the immersadesk to schools, it’s the first time the kids see it, but they “get” it right away

audience question: given the number of hours people play games, do you envision or have there been any studies done correlating gaming and sustained reading?
Steve: I”m not aware of any, although I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some out there; some studies have shown a weak correlation between gaming and literacy, but it’s a chicken-and-egg proposition, so it’s difficult to tell

audience question: you’ve noted the interstitial use of gaming, which seems at odds with the dashboard theories in the last session
Steve: noted the book “The Second Self;” children are oriented towards mastery of the world around them, so mastery of something like a gameboy is an important state; later in life, that mastery becomes less important, at which point socializing becomes a bit more of an issue; some will always spend an inordinate amount of time gaming

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