News
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Video game supplies adventure for North Hills students
Tuesday, May 27By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Whether she's in search of a mystical green stone or the mythological Chupacabra, Carlie Enzera is always up for an adventure in geography, scouring beaches and caves for an ancient artifact.
Indiana Jones, she is not. Enzera, 12, of Ross, a seventh-grader at North Hills Junior High School, is learning geography as part of an online, World of Warcraft-style video game.
"A lot of times I get bored just reading a textbook or doing worksheets, but this makes us more apt to pay attention even if it isn't a subject we're really interested in," she said. "It's fun, but educational, not like some of the games out there like Guitar Hero where you aren't learning. I'd do this in any class."
Students at the junior high are testing "The Impending Gale," a game that challenges them in algebra, Earth science, geography and Spanish. Students play the part of a disaster relief volunteer who gets swept up in an island adventure.
The program was designed by Eric Hardman, a senior producer with National Network of Digital Schools, a Beaver-based company focused on digital education options. Hardman, who worked for Walt Disney Co. in California, created the program to give students in online schools an opportunity to socialize.
This semester's pilot program at North Hills marks its first venture into a traditional school setting.
"Our goals weren't to teach, but to reinforce the concepts and allow students to apply the skills they learned," Hardman said. "It's a powerful tool that allows student to do things like explore a Mayan temple.
"Traditionally, it's hard to pull that off, even with a field trip."
North Hills is the only district in Allegheny County to use this particular approach, said Sarah Zablotsky, spokeswoman for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. As students become increasingly tech-savvy in their social lives, a movement toward digitalizing educational options is a natural progression, Zablotsky said.
"We can no longer teach kids in an analog fashion when they live in a digital world," said Jeff Taylor, North Hills' director of curriculum, assessment and technology. "This brings their world into the world of schooling."
Whether their games of choice are first-person shooter adventures, classic arcade romps or sports-themed exercises on the Wii, most students in Zach Skrinjar's seventh-grade social studies class regularly play video games. They love the idea of using video games in their classrooms, something Skrinjar believes can enhance their education, if done properly.
"It gives the students a different outlet of learning, and I've noticed they're a bit more receptive in their learning process," he said. "It's never an alternate for being (in the classroom), but it can be a good balance."
The nonviolent video game has a component that allows students to interact with one another and other players who log in, just as in World of Warcraft. But North Hills officials shut off that aspect using a firewall, to keep the game more academic than social, Skrinjar said.
Bringing the classroom into their lives is getting North Hills students more excited about their school work. Autumn Horn, 13, of West View wants "The Impending Gale" in her math classes.
"You get so tired of reading out of a textbook it makes you fall asleep," she said. "This definitely makes you remember things differently. I feel like I'm catching on better."
Daveen Rae Kurutz can be reached at dkurutz@tribweb.com or 412-380-5627.