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The Role of Video Games for Children
jZnat wrote in to alert us to a BBC article discussing the role of video games in the classroom. The New York Times (registration required) has a more general article regarding young children and their relationship to video games. It's interesting to see the major news outlets refer to gaming in an academic light, and without the usual "the sky is falling" theatrics.
Yeah, and no sorts of other learning games, either!
You've obviously not been back into a grade-school classroom in years, where games are played for learning *all* different sorts of materials.
We don't want our kids thinking up insightful solutions, building creativity, learning to deal with competition, or any of the other things Video Games provide.
I'm not saying we should be playing Doom 3 with our third-graders, I'm just saying we ought to be open to the possibility that, yes, there are things you can learn from the computer. Social interaction is *always* good, but the computer is a serious tool of the future that our kids need to be intimately familiar with.
Kids + games = interest. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing has a racecar driving mode, and from what I recall (going back 10-15 years) that's what most of the computers were doing during typing, rather than the boring screen plus keyboard. Anything you can do to learning to help make things *fun* for the kids is an important step towards getting them interested and motivated on the material.
I really hope that's sarcasm.
Games offer interactivity, which even the most skilled of teachers can't offer consistantly. When kids play games, they don't have to force themselves to pay attention. Even games not meant for the void of edutainment can teach. I learned more about the battles and equipment of WW2 playing Battlefield 1942 than i could dream of learning in the same timeframe in high school history.
When kids play a game, they're considering the objective and how to achieve it. Let's say we have a sim-city type game, and the object is "Avoid the Great Depression." I can guarentee you kids will learn more about the Hoover era from popups and events that happen ingame than any history teacher could convey.
One, this is never going to be adopted by teachers that don't know how or won't learn themselves how to adopt new technology or ideas. I know that teachers that are within 5 even 10 years of retiring won't put in the effort to do this. Two, you need a computer for every child, either at a computer lab where visits will be less frequent or have a computer at every child's desk, which public schools can't afford, unless they slash art, gym, and music which are all important.