"How Videogames teach How to Teach" Blog Entry Response

Recently, we have read a blog entry titled "How Videogames teach How to Teach" on our english class, and to be honest, I really liked it and can understand their point of view, so I decided to write a "response" to the creator of the entry to sort of give him some "feedback" and my point of view for his argument.

"How Videogames teach how to teach" response

Education and Video games are very different when compared to each other. Most people, when asked what makes them different, would say: “Well, one teaches stuff, the other one is just for entertainment”. Maybe even some will say that videogames makes you dumb.While that might be true today, maybe we can change that in the future and “merge” both things into one. According to the blog entry, education needs a lot to learn about video games and their way of making players do what they want, and feel happy and rewarded while doing so. Education teaches every single student the same way, at the same time, at the same place, as if they were clones of each other, when they all have different needs, their own goods and bads, and proper ways of teaching. On the other hand, Video games are experts on specialized “needs”. They group players in “ranks”, or levels, based on their abilities, and will rank up when they mastered the requirements. Once they have mastered them, they now get ascended to another level, where they are shown new requirements to ascended to the next rank. This is very different for modern education, however. Our education model “groups” people based on their age, not ability, which is very bad since two person of the same age can be completely different. One very important aspect that education should learn about is rewards. Video games make you feel like the  best person alive if you beat a boss or level. Be it trophies, new weapons, or even more levels, it always makes you experience that sense of reward and that you did the right thing, and would like to keep on going. Education on the other hand, has barely, if any, reward mechanic. Let me ask you a question, when finishing a quiz, how do you feel? In my personal experience, I feel bored and wishing I could be doing anything else, if not regretting that I'm doing the quiz in the first place. The only thing that maybe could be classified as a “reward” is the final grade, which in reality doesn't give you that much beside not failing the class. Another way of making specialized ways of teaching, is customization. They give you the ability to create your perfectly​ personalized character: physical aspects, skill trees, gadgets, hints and tips, and even more things that will help you create your dreamed character perfect for your need and ability. This helps some players that are good at, let's say, ranged weapons, be able to fight other players that are better with other kinds of weapons. In my opinion, that's how I see modern education in the next 100+ years, if we're lucky enough for people to decide starting a change. By implementing these kind of “personalization” into education, it could help people that perform better in some topics than another. I believe that we can achieve this, but it will definitely take some time and proposal. We can make that change, we just have to make and effort and believe on it.