Just when you were starting to think that nothing good, besides some serious carpal tunnel, would come of video games, The Federation of American Scientists has announced that video games can redefine education.
This must be a big deal, considering the Federation usually discusses issues such as nuclear weaponry and government secrecy.
After a year-long study, the group called for federal research to figure out how to use the addictive qualities of video games and incorporate them into schools.
The games, which are "second nature" to many children, help teach skills that are valuable to employers, such as team building and problem solving under duress.
(Of course, as the wife of a "gamer," I'm rolling my eyes at the thought of my husband problem solving while playing all his zombie games.)
I know they have some "educational" games for the younger set, a game called "Vtech" comes to mind. So what do you think? Should schools use video games as a teaching tool? Or are games something that should be kept to spare time only?
1. I'm a parent of two small boys under the age of 5 and I'm agree with these results. As a librarian and gamer with a Masters degree in Teaching, I'm also very pleased this study was conducted.
These results are nothing new, but the results are still great. The work of Marc Prensky (http://www.marcprensky.com) and his book "Don't Bother Me Mom - I'm Learning," the work of James Paul Gee and an assortment of others have adovacted this for years.
The site "Video Games in Education" (http://www3.essdack.org/socialstudies/videogames.htm)
provides a good list of resouces on the subject as well.
Paul
Posted at 12:36PM on Oct 18th 2006 by Paul