On campus, video games move from dorm room to classroom

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Attention parents: The video games that drive your children to distraction could soon become a staple of higher education.

For a growing number of college professors, computer games are no mere child's play. Instead, such games are seen as a 21st-century tool to promote critical thinking, social collaboration and civic participation to students raised clutching joysticks since they learned to walk.

"The experience kids can have in a game world are more authentic than those they can have in a classroom," said David Shaffer, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"These new technologies are fundamentally changing what it means to be educated," added Shaffer, author of "How Computer Games Help Children Learn."

At Michigan State, a new academic program teaches graduate students how to design "serious games" -- video games with a greater purpose than annihilating a three-headed alien or shooting down a gangster. Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California-Irvine are among the other campuses where scholars are exploring the educational benefits of video games.

Kwangsu Cho is a former video game designer for Hyundai Sega Entertainment Co. in South Korea who now teaches a video game design class at the University of Missouri- Columbia.

Unlike similar courses at Missouri and elsewhere that focus on writing computer code and other technical topics, the students in Cho's class study the cognitive power of video games -- that is, what makes certain games so compelling to players.

That means plenty of class time and homework assignments that rely upon Nintendo Wii consoles, Guitar Hero keyboards and even the predecessor of video games, the humble board game.

"As a tool for learning, video games have a totally different potential that traditional education doesn't provide," Cho said.

The best games, he said, help students "enjoy learning without even thinking about it."

Caitlin Ellis, president of the University of Missouri College Democrats, enrolled in the course to learn how to combine her passion for activism with her peers' obsession with online games.

One of her favorites is Ayiti: The Cost of Life, a role-playing game in which users help feed an impoverished Haitian family.

Ellis, a junior from Edwardsville, Ill., wants to pursue a career in the video game industry. She recently returned from the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which included a Serious Games Summit to build support for games devoted to education, philanthropy and social change.

"I see a lot of opportunity to get people more interested and involved in what's going on in the world around them," she said.

As for Cho's class, Ellis is more than happy to avoid the traditional model of a professor lecturing to a group of students.

"It's much more engaging [than classroom lectures]," she said. "My other classes can get very tedious."

Some supporters of video game learning are tapping the most committed players for their own expertise. The Liemandt Foundation, a not-for-profit based in Austin, Texas, sponsors an annual contest with a $25,000 prize for college students to create educational computer games for at-risk middle schoolers.

Among the winners: Refuse of Space, which requires players to use physics and aeronautics to steer a pirate ship through space; and EleMental, a hide-and-seek endeavor that relies on mastery of the periodic table of elements.

"If we can teach them in an environment they really enjoy, we can really make a difference," said Lauren Davis, director of the foundation's Hidden Agenda contest.

As more parents become familiar with video games -- and as more video game players grow up and become parents -- concern over content is giving way to questions about the best games to promote learning, Shaffer said.

"The debate has shifted," he said. "The voices that say [video games] are a waste of time are fewer and fewer."