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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.' "
They have to play EA games? Wow, I feel sorry for them.
If it's work, it won't bring the same satisfaction as playing a game for pleasure.
And in related news, the TEA are consulting Ouija Boards to determine the next Social Studies curriculum.
Your Homework is Play Video Games
Apparently someone skipped their English homework.
--riney
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.
Hey, what a great idea! We never needed those before, but NOW there's some serious demand for brand new skills like problem-solving.
The owls are not what they seem
Top three reasons why I don't want EA involved in this
1) Homework will take 10 hours a night to complete, but "only during crunch time".
2) There are always other students willing to participate in the program if you don't want to
3) Students won't get extra credit, no matter HOW much homework they do
On a more serious note, I've been saying for YEARS that we need to focus on these so called "softer" skills. Current education is too hooked on what a child knows and how well they can memorize, not how able they are to figure things out. I realize that the subjects are supposed to be vehicles to teaching these "softer" skills, the problem is many teachers don't. They teach facts to be memorized ( especially at the higher levels ), not concepts to be thought about.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
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.
Problem-solving... Get into difficult-to-reach sniper spot.
Resilience... Survive long enough in difficult-to-reach sniper spot to make a difference.
Persistence... Inflict as many headshots as possible without missing.
Collaboration... Can someone get me some more sniper ammo?
Computer games giant Electronic Arts and education IT researcher NESTA Futurelab, are to conduct trials to see how computer games can be used as educational tools in schools.
Sales Rep: Sir! We have a problem, no one is buying our shitty games!
CEO: Hmmmm.... is it because 25 of our last 26 games have been sequals?
Sales Rep: That's part of the problem, sir, but all of our games contain a copious amount of um, shit.
CEO: Interesting. We need a new market approach.
Sales Rep: Sir?
CEO: We sell our games to schools, and say they our educational!
Sales Rep: Brialliant!
CEO: We have to make sure they buy our utter crap too, so let's say "all our genres have something to offer"...
Sales Rep: Oh Sir, the school districts will love it! I'll get the board on the phone right away. Hello Add'em '06!
You are in a 21st Centurty school, your teachers are underpaid, the facilities are obsolete, your fellow students are apathetic. It is dark. There is a computer in front of you.
>>turn on computer
The computer is on.
>>play educational game
You are distracted by the bright colors and cool sound effects. You are supposedly learning problem-solving, resilience, persistence and collaboration; skills for which there is no test to measure your progress. You graduate.
>>get job
Your attempt to get a job fails. It is dark.
>>get job
Your attempt to get a job succeeds! You are now a fry cook at McDonalds.
>>get better job
Your attempt to get a better job fails. Your education never prepared you with either the intellectual tools or actual knowledge to succeed. You have no health care, you don't vote, and your kids will turn out even worse than you. Oh, and you've been eaten by a grue.
Your dead
I am 37 and have heard our generation refered to by some as the last "free range" generation. Some kids got out of line and ended up in trouble, but in balance kids learned where reasonable limits were and were held responsible for their behavior. I later observed in college as a Resident Assistant that the kids to watch out for were the ones who's parents tightly controlled them. The ones that had a longer leash growing up knew how to negotiate the wild wild world without going bonkers. I think the key was that other adults (besides your parents):
It will never be the same, but I hope to provide for my 4 kids some of the life experience I had that I feel is critical.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.