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Leisure Time and Personal Development Through Video Games: A Case Study Under Development in Barcelona

Daniel Aranda, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro

Presented at the European Conference on Games Based Learning [1] Glynhill Hotel, Paisley, Scotland, UK 25-26 October 2007

Abstract: Video games, as with any other cultural resource, are basic tools in social and cultural learning, tools for socialising that provide players with instrumental and social competences and skills. The project has two complementary focuses for reflection and data collection providing mutual feedback designed to aid understanding of how video games work as educational tools in non-formal education. On the one hand, we want to consolidate the project’s theoretical framework based, principally, on the study of the theory of play and video games, studies on cultural consumption and the contributions made by leisure education. As a second focus for attention and reflection, we have just completed a pilot project entitled ELLAD, (Espai de Lleure i Aprenentatge Digital - Digital Learning and Leisure Space), looking at the use of video games in non-formal educational contexts. In this paper, we summarise the factors that led to the creation of the video games classroom, the dynamics established and the initial conclusions reached, which will let us validate, defend or discard future implementations and/or methodologies in the production of the white paper.

Keywords: Video games, play, non-formal education, cultural consumption, cultural use, leisure, children and young people.

Presentation

Video games, as with any other cultural resource, are basic tools in social and cultural learning, tools for socialising that provide players with instrumental and social competences and skills. Compulsive and addictive use is highly unadvisable, especially if this leads to an individual's isolation and hinders their leading a normal life. This danger, however, does not only affect video games: this is a situation that arises when there is abuse of any kind of cultural resource, such as books, music, etc. The basis of our work is that video games respond to the desire or need of many children, and adults, to experience pleasure, to develop instrumental and motor skills, and, above all, to strengthen social links and exercise different parts of their personality and identity within their group of friends.

Schools, as the formal education institution of reference, have long reflected and investigated the possibilities of introducing different digital resources into the classroom, including video games. The aim of these interventions, without going into too much detail, is to improve the quality and effectiveness of school education practices and processes.

With respect to educational institutions that work in the field of non-formal or leisure education, which is an adequate space for social integration and personal development, this reflection and experimentation with digital leisure resources has yet to be seen. With this research, we wish to provide the first impetus to bodies working in the field of leisure education with children and the young to see video games as another tool that can potentially enrich their educational project. Leisure educators need rigorous proposals and projects that incorporate video games as an effective educational tool to strengthen instrumental and social skills.

Thus, the research project we are working on aims to study the formal aspects of video games (Salen and Zimmerman, 2004, 2006), but also, and fundamentally, their use and application by children and the young in leisure settings managed by non-formal education bodies, such as leisure associations for children and the young, and esplais. Esplai is a Catalan word meaning educational leisure time. It refers both to an educational concept and the building where the activity takes place; ie, the leisure education centre. Likewise, esplais are non-profit educational organisations, which are not linked to schools or families, where children and the young participate freely and learn to play the leading role in their own projects. Esplais promote group-focused actions, follow an explicit educational line and are run by paid staff and volunteers. They are closely linked to their local surroundings

The project has two complementary focuses for reflection and data collection providing mutual feedback designed to aid understanding of how video games work as educational tools in non-formal education. The case study presented herein (written in June 2007) is still under development. Specifically, we are completing the second stage, the data processing which is to be finished around October 2007.

On the one hand, we want to consolidate the project’s theoretical framework based, principally, on the study of the theory of play and video games, studies on cultural consumption and the contributions made by leisure education (Caillois, 2001; Huizinga, 1955; Sutton-Smith, 1997). The first focus for reflection involves participation from a heterogeneous group of leisure professionals. Educational experts from the Catalan Esplai Foundation —a non-profit organisation founded in 1996 with the aim of promoting leisure education for children, the young and adults, which works with around 13,000 children and more than 1,400 instructors— met with members of the research group each month to discuss, realign or contextualise data and reflections relating to the theory of play, digital leisure or the dynamics and methodologies of education in leisure. The discussion group's aim was (in fact already is) to share and agree on the strategic lines and theoretical framework to act as the basis of the actual proposals for training, integration and use of digital leisure and video games in the educational projects at the different leisure centres that form part of the Foundation.

Alongside this discussion group and as a second focus for attention and reflection, we have just completed a pilot project entitled ELLAD, (Espai de Lleure i Aprenentatge Digital - Digital Learning and Leisure Space), looking at the use of video games in non-formal educational contexts, developed during extracurricular hours at a public-run school in Barcelona with a group of sixteen boys and girls aged between 11 and 12 years of age. This pilot project is described in more detail below.

With these two tools, the discussion group and pilot project, we are going to produce a white paper that sets out the main discussions, reflections and methodologies that allow for the integration of digital leisure tools, (generally speaking video games), in the context of leisure education. This white paper allows us to make a first step in standardising a tool (video games and other digital leisure resources) that offers the possibility for an inspiring educational activity for both the educators, and the children and youngsters.

Below, we summarise the factors that led to the creation of the video games classroom, the dynamics established and the initial conclusions reached, which will let us validate, defend or discard future implementations and/or methodologies in the production of the white paper.

The Digital Classroom: video games as a tool for non-formal education

The main questions that led to the creation of the classroom as a tool for observation were as follows:

• What are the characteristic ways of acting, interacting, assessing, getting to know, feel and use objects and technologies related to video games in leisure education contexts?
• What are the implicit and explicit motivations and rewards related to the use of video games?
• How and what is learnt from video games? What are the dynamics of this learning? Do they differ from formal learning processes?
• What dynamics are established between pleasure and frustration?
• How does the peer group work?

Obviously, some of these initial questions, once the observation stage using the digital classroom is over, need to be reformulated or reoriented. Others cannot be answered yet as we will have to organise other forms of dynamics; eg, looking at the work only in terms of certain video games or consoles, or observing and monitoring longer periods of time or increased frequency of use.

The introduction of the workshop, during the current data interpretation stage, has allowed us to discover how a group of boys and girls interact, assess, find out about and use objects and technologies related to video games in a non-formal education context.

Despite still being in a preliminary stage of the research, we feel able to contribute important information that allows for the first steps in terms of a leisure education that is able to take full advantage of that offered to players of video games consoles: pleasure, socialising, and the need to explore new worlds and skills.

Contextualisation of the classroom with respect to the school timetable

One of the bodies of the Catalan Esplai Foundation, the Xino-Xano Leisure Association [2], which works with a public-run school in Barcelona where it organises the activities at midday, the activities over the summer and the youth club on Saturdays, was chosen for the pilot test. The workshop proposal was presented to the school directors [3] and the leisure association's directors; both welcomed the idea enthusiastically, providing the research group with the premises, materials and support personnel.

Given that the educational basis of the Xino-Xano Leisure Association school dinner service was based on traditional games, the proposal to work with a small group of students using digital games fitted perfectly with their objectives and increased the tools available to meet these. This fact aided the choice of body and the obtaining of the infrastructure needed: video games, consoles and computers. In total, the body invested over 6,000 euros in material and human resources to set the workshop up.

Organisation, infrastructure and the general dynamics of the classroom

The classroom was set up in the school's computer room, which had sixteen computers connected to the internet. Alongside the room’s own infrastructure, we also installed a PlayStation 2, a PlayStation 3, a Nintendo Wii, two Nintendo DS Lite and an Xbox 360. Plans were made for 14 workshop sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm from April 20 to June 6 2007, under supervision from an instructor responsible for the classroom and two members of the research group. Our presence was aimed, on the one hand, to offer support to the instructor and to ensure that the strategies and dynamics agreed to by the research group were met; and, on the other, to act as participants and observers, and to take charge of the proper audiovisual recording of each of the sessions.

The first session was dedicated to presenting the proposal to the thrirty-two boys and girls in their last year of primary school (11 and 12 years old) who were signed up for the school dinner service. Given the need to have a small number of participants in the digital classroom, the decision was taken to create two groups of around fifteen to take turns. The first turn would involve observation by the research group, the second, during the month of June, would only be to allow the other children to take part and not be left out of a project that was so exciting for them, as is the prospect of playing cutting-edge video games in a school context.

The choice of turns and the make-up of the groups were decided by lottery. The name of each child was placed in a bag and the first sixteen names pulled out entered the first group, and the rest, the second.

The boys and girls celebrated enthusiastically, with cries of joy and embraces, not because fortune saw them form part of the first group, from April 20 to June 6, but for the fact that the groups of friends were not being broken up. The vast majority of the children chosen to form part of the first group had enough friends with them to feel happy about the result. The group of boys and girls who were to form part of the second group were equally satisfied with the results, despite having to wait another month to take part in the activity.

It should also be pointed that three girls decided, voluntarily, not to take part in the video games workshop, even before the draw was made; but they were not the only ones, two more girls turned down the chance to take part as one of their friends who had already pulled out asked them to.

In short, it shows that video games are not, on their own, exciting enough to break up a group of friends. The gaming experience has to be enjoyed as a group. In other words, the pleasure, in this case that associated to video games, is greater and more desirable when enjoyed socially. Likewise, this fact reinforces the need to overcome the myth of the asocial and solitary games player. Newman (2004, 146) citing the work of Carsten Jensen (1995) states that “the suspicion about the content is however only one side of the widespread scepticism about computer games. Another, far more serious criticism is levelled at the influence of the medium on children’s social relations. It is a common assumption that computer games lead to children becoming socially isolated, all in their separate rooms where they engage in a lone struggle in the artificial universes of the games. In other words, the computer destroys social relations and playing.”… As Jensen follows: “Fortunately that is not so. In fact children rarely play alone, and computer games are about more than the actual game. Contrary to appearances, the computer and the games are absorbed into the existing children’s culture.” (Jensen, 1999, 6). Cultural consumption, and the consumption of video games, has to be understood as a participative, social and cooperative activity, as is traditional play. As Vigotski states (cited by Delval, 1994, 287), playing is a social activity where, thanks to cooperation with others, we can take on roles that are complementary to our own. Playing is a social activity, a shared activity that forms part of a network made up of people, tools and technologies. Notable examples of this configuration of playing as a social activity were seen throughout the activity. The session dedicated to the Space Invaders game was, for example, the quietest and most productive of all. The fact that each player had their own position, but, at the same time, were playing in a competition involving them all created a very special feeling of communal participation. Likewise, on many occasions, the boys and girls created social activities in games that were, strictly speaking, individual, as was the case with MotorStorm, a single-player racing game in which the players realised that by bending the rules they could create an alternative way of playing.

Presentation of games in eight sessions

The following sessions were organised in order to present the video games that were to form part of the proposals for the workshop. Nine proposals were presented: four by the participants themselves and the other five chosen by the workshop's instructors. The list of games presented was as follows: Wii Sports, the PS3's MotorStorm, Space Invaders and King Kong for PC, Rayman for the Wii, Pro Evolution Soccer and Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360 and, finally, Dance Factory and MotoGP 4 for the PS2.

The first half hour of each session was spent explaining the characteristics of the games, the group's reasons for presenting the proposal and its interest. The second half hour was for playing freely. It should be pointed out that the definitive list of games presented was to be voted on and only four from the total chosen, and only these four formed part of the list of games to be used during the workshop. The results, with respect to the competences, know-how, knowledge or cultural capital that they had acquired, whether because they were video game players or because they had read about them in magazines or on websites, was virtually nonexistent. They were not able to offer reasons or justification for their proposals, or the pleasure they gained as players, beyond obvious factors or those highlighted by the games’ advertising campaigns. For example, the players valued common points that arise in conversation between the least advanced users. In the presentation of MotorStorm, they valued the spectacular graphics and spatial simulation, as well as the spectacular simulation of the physical behaviour of the vehicles or the accidents represented. In this case, the element valued is simply the spectacular nature, which is, similarly, the main argument used in the advertising campaign for this product, one of the first latest generation games to appear on the PlayStation 3. In another case, the presentation of Pro Evolution Soccer 6, the focus was again on the fidelity of the graphic representation and its playability (a concept which they used without really knowing what it meant) being better or worse than FIFA 07; likewise, discussion centred on the licences required to represent actual teams and players; ie, all those debates that are to be found in the specialist magazines or on the internet. However, this is also true of other cultural resources, including books, music, traditional games or even certain aspects relating to football, in short, any cultural resource that forms part of that which we call popular culture. As Ien Ang states in her study of people’s reaction to Dallas, but which can be extrapolated to our object of study, “pleasure always arises as a spontaneous feeling of well-being. You feel good when you are watching Dallas [in our case, playing video games] and that makes it enjoyable: no explanations appear to be necessary… Pleasure is one of the things in life regarded as self-evident and which as a rule people don’t think about” (1985, 86).

The dynamics of the time spent playing freely

The time spent playing freely allowed us to see that there was no fear in terms of putting their skills to the test in public, in front of schoolmates. There was no fear of failure. The classroom was a safe haven where mistakes formed part of the playing and their aim was to improve, to dominate a range of skills including coordination, rhythm or strategy. As J. P. Gee (2004,77) states “learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered”.

Whilst in real life, mistakes are penalised, in the context of playing video games, mistakes are the tool that allow players to practise, try new strategies and, eventually, progress. Likewise, mistakes generated collaboration dynamics between the boys and girls. Those who were well-versed in the basic routines and skills offered their know-how to the rest with the aim of improving the group's competence. Social spaces were established where the game was the object of discussion and evaluation, given that, as S. Frith states, “part of the pleasure of popular culture is talking about it; part of its meaning is this talk” (1996,4).

For example, in each of the games, and Guitar Hero in particular, the players established dynamics for exchanging information: how the guitar-shaped controller had to be used, which songs were playing and whether they were good or bad.

Finally, the results of the presentations led to a list of nine proposals that were voted on. Rayman, Dance Factory, Space invaders and Guitar Hero were the most voted for and chosen to form part of the competition that was to end the first round of the workshop. Thus, the subsequent sessions were dedicated to improving their abilities with these four games, training that enabled them to get the hang of the basic skills needed for each of the video games. With this aim in mind, the sixteen participants were divided into four groups, that they themselves chose, for the final competition.

Conclusions

One of the signs from this initial stage of the research is that, as D. Buckingham (2004, 174) points out, “there is no support for some of the common beliefs about the possibilities of computer games as educational media, at least when educational outcome is supposed to be the learning of specific curricular topics represented in the theme of the game”. However, that which is strengthened by video games is the learning of skills related to ICT, alongside the catalysing and building of social structures that encourage discussion and the sharing of knowledge. During the presentation sessions, players acquired specific skills in terms of the use of ICT and certain specific aspects of the video games. For example, in the case of the session on Space Invaders, the players acquired competences in the use of computers for playing games, for finding resources for casual play (quick games) and found out about a virtual community of players. In the games for the Wii and Dance Factory, the players acquired technological skills in the use of alternative controllers, such as using their own body at the same time as use the game's remote controller. Other know-how worked on in the presentations included knowledge of the physical simulation in games (in MotorStorm: acceleration and simulation of impact; or in Virtual Tennis: direction, rebounds, force of impact). Thus, players quickly became familiar with the aspects of physical simulation increasingly used in game design.

C. Jensen highlights in reference to research into Tamagotchis and the critical discourses involved in their use that “in one framework of interpretation the Tamagotchi appears to be a simulation, to be ‘artificial life’, and thus a simplistic mechanical substitute for the so-called genuine. But Tamagotchis are only in theory of interest as examples of ‘artificial life’. They have not achieved their popularity because they imitate real pets more or better than other phenomena, but because they function and work in the social interaction among the young.” (1999, 40).

Children, while they are playing, “reveal themselves as meaning-givers that can actively intervene in their environment. While playing they are shaping their environment and social networks. Play allows them to be actors. Exactly because play is somehow without obligations, it is of such an importance to children. While they are playing, children experiment with their environment and are regularly called by that environment to account for their activities. When these consequences of the play become uncontrollably complex for the child, the child may lose control over the game. At that moment he or she can stop the game. The child thus has the liberty from one moment to the other to drastically redraft his or her responsibility for the involved environment. This liberty is characteristic of the game and allows children to extend their action radius without too much risk.” (2004, 11-27).

Quotidian culture, everyday culture, that which is not valued but which we live each day, including those resources that form part of children’s digital leisure, needs to form part of the educational sensibility and tools for all those proposals that see leisure as an opportunity for investment.

Rather than denouncing the existence of violence or of socially undesirable cultural models and extrapolating the effects in terms of antisocial behaviour and consequences, we want to study the meaning of these artefacts by understanding the reasons behind their use: What way is the violence represented used? What is the role of emotion and pleasure? What are the positive effects potentially found in most video games? Or, how can video games be used as tools for social relations? “[V]iolent [and non-violent] games offer a unique environment where emotions can be explored in ways that are generally impossible in real life. In the safe, private laboratory of the video game, the adolescent can freely experiment with emotions and identities, which may help him to cope with the insecurities of adolescent life” (Jansz, 2005, 219-241).

Studies into the use of video games by adolescents show that they become laboratories for social and emotional experimentation (Williamson, 2004; Sherry, 2004; Feike and Nicholson, 2001; Jansz and Marten, 2005). Adolescents use video games to experience emotions that may be controversial in real life. Video games also strengthen social links with their peers and allow for the creation of material exchange networks (hints, passwords, etc.). Use of video games by children and the young is not only linked to playing, but also to discussion, evaluation, comparison, exchange, social relationships and identity.

The aim, we would stress, is not to justify the consumption of any cultural product, but to implement methodologies that allow us to take advantage of cultural resources, as is the case of video games, that form part of the daily lives of children and the young. Leisure professionals should not leave these cultural practices to one side as, in one way or another, they promote significant learning. The aim is for the children and youngsters to carry out a process to build meaning from their personal experience, knowledge, feelings and attitudes. The idea is to create a link between what has to be learnt, reflected or worked on and that which they already know: “...the students [or group of children and youngsters] need to learn as significantly as possible those aspects of the culture of their social group that are deemed indispensable in terms of their becoming creative, critical and active members thereof” (Coll, 1990, 16).

The research, despite still being in an embryonic stage, has highlighted the emotional and social value of the use of video games in non-formal educational contexts, and of the need to establish criteria and a methodology that allow leisure bodies to connect their educational projects to an important part of youngsters’ and children’s everyday activities and leisure time; ie, time spent playing video games.

Aiding access to ICTs is a primordial aim, but so is using and reinforcing them as significant objects as regards the personal and the social. We need to integrate new technologies, and obviously video games, into our daily lives, including education, because video games are able to create spaces for freedom or communication, spaces that become laboratories for emotional experimentation or tools for a group’s social cohesion, or vehicles for working on pleasure, as well as frustration and effort.

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