Playing with your education pays off

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EDUCATED OPINION: Some 300 teachers from private and public schools around Gauteng attended the Inspired Teachers Conference held recently at the African Leadership Academy.

Eulália Snyman

Teachers don’t easily jaw drop. They have just about heard it all, seen it all and many boast the proverbial been-there-done-that T-shirt. Yet, most of the teachers who recently attended the Inspired Teachers’ Conference did a fair amount of jaw dropping, nodding, chuckling and aha-ing at the event.

The one-day conference presented by leadership development and training company, QualityLife, showcased some of the most exciting and cutting-edge trends happening in teaching. Topics under discussion included “how the heart of teaching is still the inspired teacher”, and “the rewards of creativity in the classroom”.

Professor Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State, explained why poor schools do well while Arthur Goldstuck of World Wide Worx research organisation and Michelle Lissoos of Think Ahead Solutions that specialises in education technology, elaborated on how technology is changing the face of education.

“Did you know that a group of gamers deciphered the structure of an enzyme that cures Aids?’” With this question Grade 11 learner Adam Edelstein kicked off the session entitled ‘what gaming can teach us about learning’. “It took online gamers only three weeks to crack the enzyme secret that stumped scientists for over a decade. What skills do gamers have that scientists don’t have? Is it bad to spend so much time on games?”

A keen gamer, the learner from Crawford College, Sandton, claimed from an early age that video games were improving his leadership skills. His parents remained sceptical until his mom read an article about gaming and leadership that appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Now, whenever his schooling allows it, Edelstein shares his insights about gaming with various audiences – and mom and dad don’t mind.

GAMING MASTERS: Sizwe Nxumalo, Adam Edelstein and Andre Odendaal told teachers at the Inspired Teachers Conference about what kids can learn from playing video and online games.

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“Games are hard word,” Edelstein told the teacher audience. “You as a gamer have to learn about strategy and tactics and collaboration.”

Playing games, he pointed out, allows him to unleash his imagination and have fun while acquiring some useful skills.

Games typically have a goal (save the princess); define a set of rules (use this shield or that sword); offer set of rewards (gamer can get new sword/ more weaponry and gamer is congratulated on performance as well as put on a scoreboard to see how well he/she is doing); and are based on voluntary participation (a gamer can exit whenever he/she pleases). Furthermore, games often require that gamers collaborate with fellow gamers and thus teach the principle that collaboration is crucial to success.

“Contrary to belief, gaming is quite a social thing,” he elaborated. “I can talk over headsets or play online with friends no matter where in the world they may be. Gamers learn that often by collaborating with others they can fare better in a game.”

“Games prepare people for failure,” Andre Odendaal another panellist at the Inspired Teachers Conference agreed. “Though you may fail, you keep on playing until you reach the next level.”

Odendaal is a software developer who has a masters degree in software engineering and spends his free time designing and developing video games as well as board and card games.

Gaming, he pointed out, teaches people how to play in a team and against a team. Though Odendaal believes that games don’t teach skills per se, games give people the opportunity to practice skills, for example, Farmville requires that a gamer do quite a lot of mathematics.

“You don’t play a game to increase your knowledge,” Sizwe Nxumalo added to the debate. “But it happens anyway. And that is the beauty of gaming.”

Nxumalo who is studying Bachelor of Economic Science Honours at Wits University, was named by Mail and Guardian as one of the Top 200 Young People to take to lunch in 2011. He was an avid gamer at school.

“Games make it safe for you to experiment a lot of things you would otherwise not be able to – slaying dragons and demons and giant snakes and being a hero in another world.”

He pointed out that though he is studying economics, he is delighted to see that the university had launched a fully-fledged degree in Game Design.

“It’s not about whether gaming can teach us something, but rather about ‘what gaming can teach us’,” he concluded.

QualityLife is presenting conferences on “Storytelling in organisations” on March 26 and “Business from the Inside Out” on March 27.

For more information, phone 011 880 9749 or visit www.qualitylife.co.za.