I can attest to the fact that children and teens spend more time playing games than they spend doing homework. I have four children of my own to prove my point. Those games range from simulations of real world families to multi-player combat to simple puzzles. Like my own children, young people have a myriad of choices of gaming platforms: arcade, computers, gaming systems, handhelds, and even cellphones.
Many people feel that these games are a waste of time, and that children couldn't be learning anything from games. I beg to differ. There are educational benefits to gaming that may not occur as quickly in other ways simply because of the motivation that gaming proliferates. If offered the opportunity to do a puzzle on the computer, or complete the same puzzle in a book, I am sure that at least 8 out of 10 children would choose to do it on the computer. Handheld games require a mastery of fine motor skills while gaming mats and boards and many games played on the Wii system develop gross motor skills and body coordination. Simulation games allow children to try out activities that may otherwise be out of reach for them. They have the opportunity to play dress-up, visit a far away place, create and maintain a family, build a city, or start a business. These are all opportunities that could increase background knowledge, foster creativity, and enhance educational opportunities, depending on how they are used. Because children do remember the characters, scenes and situations involved in games, there is definitely a reason to integrate educational material into games.
The biggest obstacle in using gaming as an educational tool is that as children get older, the options get slimmer. There are hundreds of educational games for toddlers and primary children, but there are fewer for middle school children, and even less for teenagers. The gaming industry needs to do a better job of creating games that can be of educational benefit to teens instead of all the blood and gore.
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Paulette you make an excellent argument in favor of computer games being educational. I agree that it is easier to get younger students engaged in meaningful games. What worries me (even more so as a parent) is that children are becoming too accustomed to being stimulated in this fashion.
ReplyDeleteBy time they reach an age where they can handle more complex educational games they seem to get bored with being educated- they simply want to shoot at things. lol
This also reinforces your notion that programmers need to work more on substantive material for older students. Not just in content, but also in length. Its been my experience that a lot of the computer games for older students are at times too darn long. They require multiple stages or phases. While they need to be at a higher level than the younger student's programs, there needs to be an in between balance as well.
Paulette, I never thought about how little was available for older students. Its usually the other way around, where everything is available for the older students and nothing for the younger students. I definitely agree that there should be more choices that actually engage older learners. Also these games should require some HOTS without being super long (as Nicole pointed out).
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