End of the semester

So, my semester is winding down, and my research project is done. Data has been collected, tables have been compiled, papers have been written. A lot of time and energy have gone into the work, and I've got the satisfaction of hard work. Science has been done!

So, what did I find? Well, not much.

That's not entirely true. My research led me in directions I didn't expect. I found that students have a hard time understanding simple war games. More surprisingly, I found that they enjoy them anyway. I've found that low-performing students do better when paired up with high-performing student.

But in the immortal words of Bono, I still haven't found what I'm looking for: any evidence that wargames improve critical thinking skills.

And you know what? That's OK. Playing wargames is something I enjoy, and part of how I apprehend history. But much as many teachers favor the Western canon despite increasingly multicultural schools, my use of my personal favorite learning tool should not dictate my favored teaching tools. Students all learn differently, and this study has helped me understand that. So while I'm not completely opposed to the use of board games in the classroom, I won't immediately jump to use them as my first choice.

Paying research subjects: Cause for concern?

Earlier in my research project, I considered compensating my research subjects in some way. Mostly, it was motivated by a concern about follow-through; I wanted to make sure I could attract students to stay after school when so many other interesting possibilities vied for their attention.

Ultimately, I decided not to do so. My study has to do with student engagement, and I decided that paying my subjects or compensating them otherwise could skew the results in favor of engagement. After all, people tend to perform better when financial incentives enter the picture. While I feel like not compensating my students raises risks in terms of completing the research on time, I considered the integrity of the data paramount.

I stumbled across a journal article by Neal Dickert and Christine Grady that brings up this same concern, although in the context of medical research. Their analysis goes much farther, however, as medical research has considerably more ethical concerns than research that involves playing a board game. All the same, this article has rekindled my interest in the subject, and reconfirmed my suspicion that bringing compensation into the equation is probably best avoided when possible.

Some video games with effective messages

While I have opted to work with board games because they are easily modified and widely available, I believe some of the most effective work in educational gaming has come in the form of electronic media. I grew up in a generation in which kids eagerly awaited time in the computer lab so that they could play old educational games like The Oregon Trail or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Looking back, these games taught me a great deal about history and geography, respectively, but the important thing was that they were games, and that got me excited.

In general, educational games today have lost the sense of play that made these older games exciting. They're often the digital equivalent of a lecture, at least in terms of engagement. But Persuasive Games, founded by Georgia Institute of Technology professor Ian Bogost, creates educational (or at least informative) games that strive to maintain the sense of play that many educational games have lost. These games have goals and positive feedback loops, essential to the game experience, but they seek to inform as well. The topics range from Killer Flu, a game that teaches players about the spread of disease to Take Back Illinois, a GOP-funded game about the political issues that party considers important, to Project Connect, which is offers a primer in communication technology in game form. Lots of companies are trying to make educational tools that are also effective as games, but Persuasive Games offers some of the most interesting options, even when they fail.

Why board games?

Video games are a giant industry, with output and profits rivaling those of the film industry, and many students have at least a passing familiarity with electronic games? Why, then, have I chosen to concentrate on the educational merits of designer board games, to which most students have likely had no exposure, as a tool in education?

I must admit that part of it has to do with my own fondness for the form; I own an arguably obscene number of board games, and simulation games (also known as wargames) are an important part of how I engage with history; these games often proffer their own unique understandings of a particular conflict, and whenever I read a book about a historical epoch, I find myself wishing to play a game that deals with that epoch to gain a more visceral understanding of the subject.

Admittedly, this approach is best suited to military history, but there are historical games that deal with non-military subjects; a prominent example is 1960: The Making of the President, which seeks to simulate the events of the 1960 Nixon/Kennedy Presidential race and the electoral system overall. (Kennedy himself was reputed to enjoy board games; I have an old Avalon Hill catalog that proclaims the fondness that Kennedy and Kissinger showed for the game Diplomacy, which has been used by at least one teacher I know as part of a unit on World War I.)

While it would be foolish to rely entirely upon a game as a teaching tool, I believe that board games could help students engage with a topic. It may not be a video game, but it is still a game, and I have no objection to students enjoying themselves while they are learning about geography, the Domino Theory, the intricacies of international diplomacy, or any other topic. Board games also have the advantage of being easily modifiable, so teachers can tailor the experience to specific educational goals, and their low-tech nature makes accessibility less of an issue.

I listen to a lot of board game podcasts, and some deal either tangentially or directly with education. There are even books about the educational merit of board games. Most of these deal with the value of games in math instruction, where the benefits are more obvious. But since board games have been an integral part of my historical engagement, I would like to study how I could use them to help keep my students engaged in the study of history.