From: Lisa E. Brown
Email:
Course: PSYC-100K: Development of Thought & Language
College: University of CA, Santa Cruz
Instructor: Eugene Matusov, Ph. D.
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych100K
ChildrenObservations: Yes
Date: 20 Mar 1997
Time: 12:35:42
Remote Name: tsa-05.ucsc.edu
Computer technology has been incorporated into virtually all aspects of our daily lives. Computers are not only commonplace in the business world, but they are now prevalent in our school systems, as well. What types of programs are children using and what influences do these interactions with technology provide for future learning? In this paper, I will attempt to look at computer games and their content in relation to children’s future learning skills. The following research was reported from observations of elementary aged children who participated in a local after school Latino youth center program and interacted with undergraduate students from the local university. The setting was an unstructured environment where children were able to play computer games with the assistance of college students. Educators, psychologists, students, and technologists may find this setting of interest because of its future potential for learning and improving upon current methods in teaching and education.
There is no denying that computers have penetrated many aspects of our lives. We rely on computers daily for tasks such as: world wide communication, crunching numbers for banking and financing, creating databases of customers, and application software for learning environments. Not only are computers now the norm in our (adult) day to day working environments, they have also made their way into classroom settings enhancing learning and creating new educational opportunities for children.
Method
Adolescent aged children, ranging in ages from 4 to 12 years old, all from public elementary schools located in Santa Cruz, CA, participated in a local Latino youth center (LLYC) program with undergraduates from the University of CA, Santa Cruz. There were approximately 30 male and female children involved in this program and 18 male and female undergraduate students.
The children volunteered to attend the after school program and the undergraduates participated as part of a course in developmental psychology. The children and the undergraduates attended the local center twice weekly, observing/interacting with the children for approximately one and one half hours per day, for a total of three hours per week. Sometimes the children were just observed playing a computer game, but typically, the undergraduate(s) played with the children on the computers. Fieldnotes were written following each observation and were then added to a web site created by the instructor of the course.
Sex-typed Computer Games and Behavior
At the local Latino center youths had the opportunity to “play” with computer games in an unstructured environment. Both boys and girls interacted with their favorite software or CD-Rom computer games after school with the assistance/interactions of undergraduate students. Some of the games available for the children were: action/aggressive in nature such as, Pac Man or Dig Dug; problem solving in nature such as, Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego; and others that could be classified as sex-typed or stereotyped games such as, DollHouse.
Research on gender issues suggests that boys and girls, particularly adolescent children, are attracted to different types of play and also, that children at this age prefer to play with same gender playmates. During middle childhood, which is the age group that we are primarily observing at the local Latino center, a sense of gender, including gender stereotypes, is another aspect of self that develops during this period (Sroufe, Cooper, & DeHart, 1996).
An example that relates to sex-typed behavior was observed by Jim, a male undergraduate, one day at the LLYC. Susan and Julia, two 8 yr. old girls, were playing a computer game called DollHouse (a sex-typed game designed for girls where the dollhouse contains items like dishes, dolls, stuffed animals, and other related articles that can be manipulated by the user). Jim approached the girls and said that he loved that game and wanted to join them. Jim wrote:
“Julia was mortified. She said, ‘Ohhh, you like to play with girl's stuff’ (or something like that). Susan seemed to follow her lead, and made fun of me, too. The girls said that they could like the game because they are girls. I asked why I could not like a fun game just because I was a boy. They just said, ‘because you can't’, and they ignored me from then on.”
What are the girls “learning” in playing with this type of game? Well, stereotyped behavior appears to be being reinforced. Personally, I never observed a boy playing this game. Sroufe et al (1996) relate how
“...parents encourage sex-typed play beginning in the toddler period by reacting more positively when toddlers play with “gender-appropriate” toys. Related aspects of elementary children’s behavior often matches gender stereotyping, too. Boys, for example, are more adventurous and engage in more risk-taking, while girls are more socially aware.”
When girls were observed playing at LLYC, they often engaged in small, intimate groups. Learning how to become socially aware and able to communicate with one another is another important aspect of play that was seen at LLYC; both with the girls and with the boys.
Action Games and Behavior
What attracts kids to the computer games? Like video arcade games, many of the computer games that are now available for kids are action packed. Some of the games that fall into this category at LLYC were: Pac Man, Dig Dug, The Need for Speed, Oregon Trail (the hunting aspect, only), Minesweeper, and Soccer. The majority of fieldnote commentary with these types of games involved male children. The following are a few examples from the database:
Jim wrote in his fieldnote#1 about play with Mike (male, age 9),
“...went over to help Mike play Oregon Trail. All he wanted to do was hunt the animals, so I decided to play Minesweeper on the next computer in protest of his violence. (I told him that hunting for no reason was not nice, and I would not play with him if he was going to be violent).”
In fieldnote#5, Mindy wrote after observing Jamie, a nine year old male,
"Our turns alternate so we do not play at the same time and we are competing against each other by comparing scores...His turn starts and he starts chanting 'kill, kill, kill'. He tells me that the purple ones always get him. He continues playing and now chants kill purple, kill purple. He shares his strategy and tells me that I should get the purple crafts if I want to do better...He jumps out of his seat, runs over to Mark, who is at a different station. Mark comes over and says, ‘Hey you beat my score, in a surprised voice...’ Another thing I felt was important was the aggression Jamie showed while playing as well and the competitiveness he showed."
In the above examples the boys seemed to prefer the action type of games (even though Oregon Trail isn’t designed with hunting as a primary feature, it is just one of many aspects to the problem solving game). Many other male children at LLYC also seemed drawn to the more aggressive aspects of games. In Current Readings in Child Development, Maccoby (1994) suggests “that the two sexes engage in fairly different kinds of activities and games. Boys often play in larger groups and their play is rougher...”(p. 169).
Although many of the undergraduates worked with both male and female children it was interesting that the games I have labeled ‘action’ were typically dominated by male children. Is this because males are more attracted to these types of games? It appears as though our socialization of sex-appropriate games carries over into the realm of computer games and possibly also influences future learning environments.
Gender Neutral Games and Behavior
The game that was one of the most frequently played by both boys and girls at LLYC was called “Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?”. This game is designed to solve a mystery while acting as a detective and then catching the criminal. Initially, clues are given about what the suspect may look like, tall or short, fat or thin, and maybe a clue about something they might be wearing. The game also intertwines with geography as the suspect could be in a number of places and so clues are given about the location of where the suspect may have gone. The object of the game is to catch the criminal and learn about geography while playing.
Of the children observed playing this game some played with other children and some played with one or more of the undergraduates. The following are some of the fieldnote observations on both girls and boys playing with this computer game:
In Maria’s fieldnote#1, she played Carmen San Diego with Risa (female, age 6). Maria talked about how Risa wasn’t familiar with the game and chose not to read the instructions, but point and click in an exploration of learning. In this scenario, both Maria and Risa worked together on a variety of games: Carmen San Diego, Magic School Bus, Get Ready for School Charlie Brown, and Soccer. During most of the time playing with the games, Maria said they would both point and click, but at one point Maria “would look at the instructions that came in the CD...but, that took too long for Risa’s patience zone.”
In Tami’s fieldnote#3, she talked about how Jamie (male, age 9) used the clues to figure out what the criminal looked like.
“He always goes to the appearance clues before the location clues. When he knows the answer, he proceeds without seeming to need confirmation and when he is not sure, he looks to an undergrad for assistance. Jamie went with his answer when he was positive he was right and turned to others for help, when he didn’t know.” Tami found it interesting that Jamie only clicked on the appearance clues first....’Jamie found his own logic of the game...by making his own rule’.”
In Kay’s fieldnote#3, she noted that when she wasn’t working with Susan (female, age 8),
“Susan will go and find other children (usually Julia, female, age 8) to play with her. “She gets the other children to play with her, she controls the game.” Kay also said that Susan try’s to explain the game as she is playing it with others. Kay said: “...she learns how to play the game and then tries to teach someone else how she plays the game.”
Nan said that she and Alana (female, age 10) were both new to the game so they were learning the rules together. Nan said that she tried not to tell Alana too much while she was playing, but as she was not familiar with geography, she thought,
“It was important to tell her most of the locations with the geography so she could concentrate on learning how to find the suspect. One of the main things I noticed was Alana’s patience and perseverance.”
From what I observed at LLYC (given our small sample size) girls typically played the games “designed” for girls, such as DollHouse or gender neutral games, and boys typically played the games that were more “action” packed or aggressive in nature. The games that I found to be the most interesting were the problem-solving games such as, “Where in the World is Carmen, SanDiego?”. It is interesting to ponder what the learning potentials may have been for those children who were exposed to games (like Carmen) that did not emphasize stereotyped and/or aggressive behavior.
Computer Play and Learning
What, if any, connection is there between computer “play” and future learning skills? When looking at children and play, Dworetzky (1994) indicates that:
"Social scientists generally believe that play has evolved because it has a function. It may be that playing with objects, playing make-believe, or playing together at various games helps children to become skilled at manipulating objects, to learn adult roles, or, once they are grown, to cooperated while dealing with serious and complex tasks." (103)
If this is true, then children must be given the freedom to “explore” first (in a play situation) to gain the interest and confidence that higher learning demands. Hart, from Imagination Technology notes:
Information technology (IT) can be a powerful medium for learning for children in primary schools...there are guidelines for using IT well--and they are the same guidelines for doing anything well in the primary classroom: learning experiences need to be meaningful, relevant and holistic. (http://www.oltc.edu.au/cp/refs/hart.html).
It was apparent from many of the fieldnote observations that the children were learning while playing computer games. Many children interacted in a more competitive style when playing the ‘action’ types of games. The children also seemed more excited and visibly louder while playing these games. It seems that both the sex-typed games and the action/aggressive games left a smaller area for creativity and exploration in relation to future learning opportunities. The “themes” were repetitive and gender typed. I am not suggesting that these games did not have any value because they did. Many areas of skills were improved upon, such things as increased proficiency levels with the computers and the ability to gain higher scores within the games. The gender neutral games just appeared to challenge and interest both sexes more so than the sex-typed and action games. Boys, more than girls, played the action games, but both boys and girls played the gender neutral type games. Edward noted from a related paper last quarter that,
“Neutral toys, puzzles and shape sorters, produced more positive and informative verbal behavior from the parents when compared to other toys” (http://www.ematusov.com/final.paper.pub).
From the data gathered about “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?”, it seemed as though there were more “positive and informative behaviors” noted while the children played this game. There were an equal number of boys and girls attracted to this game, each with different approaches to playing, and each with their own ideas about the rules of the game. Because the design appeared neutral and focused on areas of numerous interests (solving a mystery, solving the clues, etc.) this may have allowed for a more equivalent opportunity in the area of computer technology and future learning possibilities for both boys and girls. This game did not promote stereotypes, but instead promoted balanced opportunities for playing, learning, creativity, and future skill building.
Children must have similar opportunities in technology in order to provide for increased learning environments. The increase of gender neutral games will allow for play and learning to go hand in hand along with an harmonious starting point. With such current interest in computers, children should always be given equal know-how so that they can continue to explore, create, play, and while doing so, build upon their own skills for the future. As quoted from Simpson,
“The microcomputer is a piece of technology that is not likely to ruin children but, if accepted and used imaginatively, will become a tool that can enrich the educational environment of children”.
References:
DeLoache, J. S. (1994). Current readings in child development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Dworetzky, J. P. (1994). Psychology Fifth Edition. St. Paul: West Publishing Company.
Edward, R. (1996). Gender Acquisition. http://www.ematusov.com/final.paper.pub
Hart, B. (199?). Information technology and flexible learning in the primary school. http://www.oltc.edu.au/cp/refs/hart.html.
Simpson, T. (1985). Play and learning with computers. Special issue: Children’s play. Early Child Development & Care, 19 (1-2), 69-78.
Sroufe, A. L., Cooper R. G., DeHart G. B. (1996). Child development: Its nature and its course. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
The class Web discussion at http://www.ematusov.com/psych100K, Psych. 100K: Development of Thought & Language, Winter 1997