Playing a game of terminology

Aleks Krotoski recently wrote an article on games, which was published in the journal, Nature. In it, she used computer-based games such as Fate of the World and World Without Oil to illustrate her point that these games could be used as platforms for learning, particularly for Science. In response to the article, Anthony D. Pellegrini cautioned that “games and play mean different things in an educational context” and that it is incorrect for Krotoski to use the two terms interchangeably. Yet when I read the article again, I struggled to find instances where Krotoski used games and play interchangeably. In the few rare occasions when she did, she was referring to the action of playing the game, rather than play itself. It didn’t help that the introductory sentence of the article, “Sophisticated multimedia experiments offer platforms for learning about science through play”, seemed to place the emphasis on play instead of games.

Whilst I agree with Pellegrini that care has to be taken when defining and using terminology, I fail to see why this should be a contentious point in the context of Krotoski’s article. The whole point of Krotoski’s article is to highlight the potential of computer-based games in learning. Even if the meaning of “play” has been synonymously associated with “games”, my opinion is that the difference in semantics is subtle, especially for non-domain experts. This is not to say that I condone a loose use of terminologies in technical writing. What I am questioning is whether one should see an article in its entirety and appreciate the ideas it is trying to convey, or zoom in to dissect the definition of a single term used in the passage. There is, after all, a danger of missing the forest for the trees.

Nevertheless, if I may play a game with words myself, I’ll say that I agree with Pellegrini that Krotoski’s article did little to support her suggestion that “computer-based play can support learning in schools“. It did, however, give the readers some idea of how “computer-based play can support learning”, though not necessarily in schools or in the formal educational context.