Massive Multiplayer Online Games Communities: Lessons for Diversity in School Classrooms.

Computer gaming is often seen as a barrier to good performance at school. It is
claimed that young people are becoming more obese, demonstrating poor
psychological adjustment and developing addictions to video games (Kulman, 2015).
However, by using a systems approach to the understanding of group dynamics, based
the Hackman and Morris (1975) Input-Process-Output Model of Group Performance,
it is possible to find that there are lessons in learner experience from computer games,
particularly the Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), such as World of
Warcraft, which may be applied to schools. By examining the Macro, Meso and
Micro Levels (Hackman and Morris, 1975) and the accompanying Environmental
Factors (Chou, 2015) of these two different communities, it may be seen that there are
positive aspects of computer gaming that might be helpful in managing today’s highly
diverse school communities. Meso Level characteristics from MMO Games such as
“self-organising” groups and Environmental Factors such as positive motivational
drivers (e.g, empowering creativity and ownership) may be beneficial in developing a
more learner-centred classroom. These characteristics could at least partially replace
the “concocted” groups and negative loss avoidance motivational strategies that
currently exist in European schools. This may go some way to developing classrooms
in which diversity among students is respected rather than treated with contempt.