Having looked at some of the skills video games help develop and their relevance to formal education, it has appeared essential to confront the issue of transfer.

Greenfield (1984) who also underscores some of the skills called into play by many digital games, suggests that:

“Transfer from a medium to a skill is not just a question of basic knowledge of the medium, but depends on how the medium is used. Transfer of concepts to a new domain often seems to require their verbal formulation”

(p. 103)

While not playing down the helpfulness of verbal formulation in the process, there may be alternatives. For instance, Bransford et al (2000, pp. 77-78), speaking about transfer of skills across settings, outline the following factors:

• time on task

• quality of understanding

• multiplicity of contexts

• authentic contexts. Crook also argues that “when learners might be said to remember things, their achievements would be expressed as the reorganisation of earlier ways of perceving and acting” (1994)

• making the conditions where new knowledge is applicable obvious

One factor that stands out from the previous is the acquisition of deep knowledge: it can only result from sufficient time spent on the task, effective pattern-recognition and applicability of relevant skills in response to specific conditions.

Sustained acquisition of deep knowledge may then lead to mastery. For this to happen, the learner needs to remain motivated through:

• genuine interest in the subject-matter

• social learning activities (collaboration)

• engaging digital games

It follows that, in line with Gee's stance (2003), video games may not be a waste of time when the learner moves beyond trial-and-error strategies (which I hardly did while playing arcade games) and resorts to both observation and reflection.

According to the afore-mentioned factors, it would appear that multi-player computer simulations present particularly useful opportunities for the transfer of knowledge.

References:

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. and Cocking, R.R. (2000). Learning and transfer. In How people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school (Washington, D.C., National Academy Press)

Crook, C. (1994). Human cognition as socially grounded. In Computers and the collaborative experience of learning. London ; New York, Routledge: 30-51.

Gee, J. P. (2003). Semiotic domains: is playing video games a "waste of time"? In What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

Greenfield, P. M. (1984). Video games. In Mind and media: the effects of television, video games, and computers. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.