How many of us have hear "those computer games will rot your mind" WEEEEELLLLLLLLL what if its quite the opposite. There is research that show there are distinct advantages to the gaming entertainment industry. Now in no way am i saying that if you play Call of Duty all day you will become a genius, but there are other areas of education then just facts and figures. First hand-eye coordination for the gaming community is shown to be improved due to the nature of the games, see-recognize-react. Now unless your planing a career as a pickpocket or knifecatcher this skill might not be the end all and be all. ok so what else, how about the social aspect? when they play most of these games they are working with other humans to achieve goal in the form of missions or quests. This skill is more useful in working life, if instead of your dungeon master or army general you replace a boss assigning a project for a team, THEN this skill of working together,. using everyone specific skills to complete the task looks more desirable. Even to the extreme there is a computer program out of university of mcgill that uses the natural talent of gamers to figure out chemical structures of large protiens (its set up as a game to work out how the chemicals can be arranged to give the physical structure we see in a lab and since they started this they have solve thousands of structures in a few years compared to using serial working computer which took decades to achieve this level of success.
There is huge potential in the gamers future due to the skills they learn... I have used a program names phylogeny which is using gamers to use DNA sequences to arrange the DNA of different animals. Its like a puzzles and i have seen students so into it trying to finish a level that they stay after the bell rang just to do it.
Another program was dealing with natural selection and how having different traits can help or hinder an animal in an environment.
Finally i had a demo of a game that had you playing a character that went through the human body acting as communication from hormones or other bodily functions.
These games were much more exciting to the students then me explain it for 40 minutes.
Some people may say that games have no place in a christian classroom but i say that as long as its in keeping with the morals of the school then there should be no problems. There is no 11th commandment that says thou shalt make education as dry and boring as possible.
Am i saying its all roses, no. There are huge engagement bonuses, excitement about the topics, willing to spend hours using the knowledge they learned which will translate into not forgetting it a week later. There must be some boundaries put in place, the biggest i see is that yes gaming is a sedimentary activity so even if it is for learning, if children sit at a computer screen for hours a day and not exercise the obesity problem will grow. Another issue i see is that if a child is socialized to interact with people through a keyboard or microphone then do they develope the skills required to have actual human face to face social skills... or are we creating a world where 40 year olds will live in their parents basements because they cant meet real people and have normal friendships in reality?
IS it perfect, no, but lets not squash it because there are some games that are mindless, see the potential, refine the application and reap the benifits that can come from this emerging asset.
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