The last week as we’ve discussed the use of things like video games, 3D models, VR tech to teach history, I’ve thought more about how I grew to love history myself. As a bit rude as it is to say, I didn’t come to love history because of any middle or high school history teacher. No, the reason I became so interested in history was because of historical fiction, books like Percy Jackson played a big part, but playing old WW2 Call of Duty games, Assassin’s Creed, and other fantasy games which had historical influence. Assassin’s Creed games like AC Odyssey which takes place in and recreate Ancient Greece was one in particular that really grew my love for the history of the region. This grew, and up to recently when the game Ghosts of Tsushima, which recreates the Mongol invasion of Tsushima Island Japan, are the reason I’m in the history program now. So, from my own experience I know for a fact that technology like this has a place in peoples education and can really be useful for learning. The biggest thing that games or virtual models do, is bring fun into the picture. The reason I love history is so much, is because I associate those history topics with fun, with joy and it makes me want to learn more about them and think of how much fun I had when I played those games. 3D models and virtual recreations can also be great tools in the classroom itself for helping teachers get students immersed in the subjects they’re learning about. Now, it should never replace full instruction or be used solely as the one learning tool. It needs to be properly implemented with teacher instruction so that they can make sure kids are paying attention and not treating the model or history like some kind of game. Some kids are simply not going to be interested in history, there’s nothing we can do about that, but it’s still important for them to be able to learn the content. High School age students are inherently going to have short attention spans, so that is where the teacher becomes important, in trying to use the different tools like video games, virtual models in a way that is engaging but also educational. Being able to associate history with fun will foster a love of it among younger kids. As was the case with me as a child, I believe the real love of history isn’t developed in the classroom, it’s developed when a kid wants to go and further research a topic on their own, like me with Japan after I played Ghosts of Tsushima, these new technologies can really only be used to hopefully, give kids the information they need to know, and hopefully this helps foster their own desire to learn more. It’s your own research that’s going to be what really focuses a kid on what they want to do in the future, even more so then what they learn in school, is what they decide to research in their own time.
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