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Your Homework is Play Video Games
GuitarNeophyte writes "Four schools in the UK will be testing a new program idea to use video games for educational use. An IT researcher, along with Electronic Arts (the software game giant) are funding the proposition. 'We're looking at developing some of the softer skills that are needed for the 21st century, such as problem-solving, resilience, persistence and collaboration.' "
If it's work, it won't bring the same satisfaction as playing a game for pleasure.
The way I see it, at least they're considering if this is a good idea, rather than going down the "games=bad" route. All of the skills they want to teach the kids, from the article, are present in games.
I'd be interested to see how this turns out, and if it's actually teacher-led "gaming", as it were, rather than "I'll sit here with a cup of tea catching up on my mountain of paperwork when you play these games and hopefully learn something".
At the very least, it's a start.
Just another harmless drunk
I don't really get it though. My parents told me "listen, quit the fucking apathy and do your homework." If I didn't, I was sorry (no, they didn't beat me up, but they punished me, y'know... like parents). I'm not really sure why grade school kids get to decide whether they wanna do work or not these days.
When I was little, I had all the computer games like Operation Neptune, Super Solvers Midnight Rescue, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, Number Munchers, and so on. Those were totally awesome. I'd play them again if I had them. When I was even younger (like maybe 4), I had an awesome baseball game where at each at-bat, you choose a level of difficulty and they give you an appropriate arithmetic problem. You get it right, you get a hit. You get it wrong, you're out. /No point to this post, just waxing nostalgic...
Ummm no. If it is necessary to keep the brats entertained at all times and constantly stimulated in order to get their attention, then there is a serious problem. The correct response is to not allow them to have their toys and games at all if they can't be bothered to come out of their fantasy world and do some work.
Pandering to them and trying to keep them interested because they have the attention spans of fruit flies will only make the problem worse. It is the kids that need to change, not the entire world in which they live. If little Johnny can't be bothered to do his Math homework because it's not as fun as playing Quake, then little Johny should get teh $#!+ beat out of him until he decides that maybe he SHOULD do his work. His math teacher should not have to wear a clown nose, dance a jig, and assign video games for homework just to keep him awake.
How very true.
But then since you can seemingly get branded a child-hating monster of a bad parent nowadays by even looking at your child in a disaproving manner while they rape and old woman... this isn't really surprising.
Children nowadays are given more and more freedom and less and less resonsponsibilites. You can get away with pretty much anything short of murder if you're under 16. What are parents getting in return in order to combat this? Well they're told that it's not their responsibility, and this is reinforced over and over. For those that realise that this is completely stupid and dare actually try and rase their child sensibly, they're attacked for doing so.
Homework is just a tiny fraction of the overall problem here.
I find that children respond better to positive reinforcement and supportive counselling than savage beatings. What is this, 1920?
YMMV..
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Oregon Trail
Dino Park Tycoon
Odell Down Under
and the endless other games we played in school. How is this new?
+5, Truth
The idea here is to make homework more engaging. Even though the term "video game" is being bandied about, what they're really talking about is "computer simulation." This technology will make it easier to introduce the concept of *case studies* to kids at an earlier age. As anyone who went to college knows, the best way to learn something is by doing case studies.
When I was in grade school and high school, we just did pages full of math problems, with no real explanation of what use they are. While I still think that is necessary just to build up practice, I would have appreciated going to the next level and learning how some of those concepts actually applied to real life. As a result, there is a lot of stuff I learned in algebra and trig that I have simply forgotten over the years because I never had a chance to apply it to a real life situation, albeit a simulated one.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
People coming out of the 1920's education system were far smarter than what the system is producing now. They could actually read, write, and perform mathematics. Imagine that! Today you'll find many university-level students who struggle with such basic tasks.
The strict discipline of the early 20th century gave children only one choice: to learn! And so they did.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I had this idea a while ago. The problem is that unlike flight sims like MSFS nobody is willing to risk the potential for lawsuits and liability that these things would generate. Nobody expects to only use a flight sim program to learn to fly but all those teenagers are to big a risk for the software companies to take, not my opinion but, otherwise there would be dozens of these simulators. I know I'd spend a couple hundred on SW and equipment for myself let alone my kid. But all those ambulance chasers out there would look past the hundreds of lives these things could save to sue the company for a few mill. because there is a potential flaw in the program.
You can legislate morally you can't legislate morality
'We're looking at developing some of the softer skills that are needed for the 21st century, such as problem-solving, resilience, persistence and collaboration.'
And, in the back of the package, in small print: Social skills not included.
I agree that there are some children with real mental problems that need professional treatment. The problem is that we are getting to the point where ALL children are being treated that way. Drugs are being given to children who don't need them because adults don't want to have to deal with thier naturally overactive personalities instead of teaching them that there is a time and place for different kinds of behavior. Constant counseling given to genuinely 'bad' kids who learn that they can do anything they want and get no punishment at all except having to BS their way through a talk with a boring old guy every few days.
Technoli
Video games feed information at a relatively accelerated rate. They contribute to low attention span, impatience, and quickness to boredom. Bad qualities to nurture.
But hey, theres always Ritalin.
Sure, base-camping is not nice, if the poor new-spawn can't do anything before getting sniped.
But then, my experience of online FPS is about 20 hours of Counterstrike: Source, 15hours of that on Dust2 map. 25 per team.
Plenty of sniping, lots of grenades, and choice of weaponry.
And I get BORED sniping. More fun to run around, shooting, retreating, grenading, than sit in one place looking at a cross-hair, waiting for a light pixel near the centre (piece of background in the far distance) to turn dark (Person). BANG. dang, missed.
b3 4phr41d 0f my 4bov3-4v3r4g3 c0mpu73r kn0wI3dg3!
MadDwarf