Why Games at School?
Literature on school improvement is full of exhortations to make the content of instruction "relevant." …….. But if one does belong to a culture in which video games are important, transforming oneself from a consumer to a producer of games may well be an even more powerful way for some children to find importance in what they are doing.
Preface by Seymour Papert to Minds in Play by Yasmin Kafai
 

Game programming is educational.
 
Game programming was advanced by Seymour Papert of MIT the originator of Logo which later was commercialised as Microworlds. MIT was also involved in the programming of Lego Mindstorms. The justification for teaching Logo to young children was that the programming skills would transfer to other areas such as mathematics and logical thinking. The main argument against Logo was by Roy Pea who held that a child’s “attention is typically so riveted to simply getting a program to work that any appreciation for more general cognitive strategies is lost.”.
 
Programming tools have advanced considerably since Logo, which was conceived in the 70's.  Their simple drag and drop interface liberates children from programming syntax and allows them to concentrate on higher order and more transferable tasks, the criticisms of Logo are much less valid for these new programming tools. Gamemaker is highly recommended but there are others such as  Stagecast, Flash, Klik&Play (1)(2), Squeak and even Powerpoint, animated GIFs and Excel (1) (2).
 
Games programming can be justified on three grounds, transferable cognitive skills, metacogitive skills and affective benefits:
 

• The idea behind transferable cognitive skills is that students are learning skills in areas such as mathematics and literacy while programming games and that these skills will transfer to the more traditional areas with measurable outcomes.
• Metacognitive skills are the self management skills we employ when we are learning.
• Affective benefits refers to our attitudes to school, teachers and classrooms. If students enjoy going to school, they will learn better.

 
What cognitive skills are likely to transfer?

• Cartesian coordinates
• negative number
• position, speed, acceleration
• algebraic variables
• relative & absolute value
• estimation
• chance
• a programming language similar to Visual Basic
• metacognitive skills
• structured thinking
• logical thinking inc. Boolean operations
• planning and top-down design
• team planning and development
• ability to represent operations as systems of sequence/selection/iteration.
• re-usability of code and parameterisation
• representational structures and metalanguages
• program proving
• simple physics of gravity, collisions, kinematics
• outcome matrices
• file handling
• efficient data structures and code and possibly network issues, security, database design, graphics, etc
• New unidentified skills for a digital age?

"Games are thus the most ancient and time-honored vehicle for education. They are the original educational technology, the natural one, having received the seal of approval of natural selection. We don't see mother lions lecturing cubs at the chalkboard; we don't see senior lions writing their memoirs for posterity. In light of this, the question, "Can games have educational value?" becomes absurd. It is not games but schools that are the newfangled notion, the untested fad, the violator of tradition. Game-playing is a vital educational function for any creature capable of learning."
Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design
 
Games as a Framework for Learning
The power of games programming is its power to motivate. Game programming requires mathematical and logical skills. Good games also have a storyline, graphics and  music. Good games are created by a team of creators working co-operatively.

Game programming could be a framework within which team skills, music, art, drama, maths, history, geography or almost anything could be learned. The important feature of the game is its power to motivate. Motivation leads to learning.
 
“The computer is a medium of human expression and if it has not yet had its Shakespeares, its Michelangelos or its Einsteins, it will. …. We have scarcely begun to grasp its human and social implications.”
Computer Criticism vs. Technocentric Thinking By Seymour Papert
 
Games and Media Studies
We can think about games in relation to the 5 key concepts often used by media teachers:

Languages:  what are the unique features of games and the ways in which they communicate with and engage players.  How do we need to reconceptualise some of our previous assumptions about media communication to include concepts such as immersion, feedback, rewarding the player and so on?

Representations:  how are people, places, ideas and emotions portrayed in games and what sorts of social and cultural assumptions underlie those portrayals?  Eg.  gender representations - why are males and females portrayed in certain ways?  What are the consequences of this?  What should be our response?   (note that this is very much up for debate and discussion - assumptions should not be made).

Technologies:  what should students understand about the technology related to games production, distribution, access and play?  How are social and economic factors related to the development of games technologies?  How can we think critically about these technologies?

Audiences:  How should we think about games players?  What is the relationship between games and players - where does the power lie?  To what extent should games be censored?  Theories of audiences suggest that players are not vulnerable dupes, but active and intelligent users - how can we test the validity of this?

Institutions:  how can we get students thinking critically about the institutions that enable and constrain the production and distribution and regulation of video games - production companies (roles in games production, profit motive, the role of corporations etc), regulation organisations (OFLC, etc), and distribution points (the aims and objectives of retailers, arcades etc - and the tactics they use for marketing and branding).

Mr Michael Dezuanni, Film and Media Studies, Queensland University of Technology
 
Victorian Essential Learning Standards
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) developed the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) through community consultation in 2004. During 2005 schools in the state of Victoria, Australia will use the VELS to plan their teaching and learning programs for introduction from 2006.

This paper examines the relationship between the VELS and game programming in schools and concludes that the Constructivist use of game programming in schools is closely aligned with the VELS.
VELS.doc 51kb