I come home from work, put my bag down say hi to Nat. Have a look in the fridge. Talk about who will cook dinner and turn on my computer. Check my facebook, hmmm anything interesting? Check my emails, reply to emails. Check the tv guide, anything on tonight? Check Nat’s email while he looks over my back, not much going on there. Hmm might just check my facebook again. Check Sydney Morning Herald, whats going on in the world? After dinner, avoiding marking and cleaning I put on a game. Anything from The Sims, to more basic games like solitare. I don’t think it is because I am generation Y but because I have that personality types that can’t just watch tv, I need to be doing something else as well. While I was trawlling the internet this week I came across a newspaper article that talked about teens become addicted to the internet and how this is affecting their mental health. Down the bottom there were two links to two more articles.
Teen net addicts at risk of mental health problems by Conrad Walters (www.smh.com.au)
This article links to two more both about WoW.
World of Warcrazy addicts to get in-game shrinks by Asher Moses (www.smh.com.au)
Net addicts get clean with hard labour, psychotherapy and baby goats (www.smh.com.au)
I guess that they really annoyed me.
I don’t doubt that people get addicted to online and video games.
I know I do!
But I get addicted to many things, I go through phases of games, lollies, websites, coca-cola, books, chocolate and tv shows.
I think that newspaper articles like this are scare tactics. I wonder if ‘people’ (dare I say the straight laced in my day people) are scared because they can’t make it to level two? I think that articles like this are used to scare parents away from letting their child play video games. There is still this stigma that if you play video games you’re a nerd and that because you kill people online, you will do it in real life. I’m not saying people can’t get addicted but how is this addiction worse than shutting yourself in a room and watching tv or reading a book for hours and hours a day. Some people might claim that well you know reading what can be wrong with that? I think people need to consider what happens in these games and what they encourage.
As Rita mentioned in her blog (I’m too busy to date your avatar) video games give students a sense of belonging to a group/world.
In WoW players make friends by joining a raid and then working collaboratively with even more players in a big quest called an ‘instance’. They set up guilds to support raids and higher level (more experienced payers) support lower level players.
Teachers aspire to make students in schools feel that they belong to a community of learners. So I believe the principles of the world of gaming are worth considering in school learning.
Rachael also makes some really important points about narrative strucutre and problem solving in video games in her blog (video games and learning).
There is a lot that educators can learn from video games. The narrative structure of the games, incremental increases in difficulty, demand for active participation, and development of the players’ problem solving approaches all contributes to their wide appeal and capacity to engage and motivate players.
And then there is Ryan’s list (Video games – a dynamic experience)
- Hand-eye coordination and other physical skills.
- Multi-tasking skills for the future workplace.
- Effects of risks and rewards.
- Cooperation and communicating effectively.
- Developing strategies for success.
- Deciphering how, what, why, where, and whether in new situations.
- Creativity, imagination, behavior, and character development.
Education needs an upgrade!
3 responses so far ↓
ritavh // October 22, 2009 at 10:01 am |
Prue
I like the way you have drawn together the key points from a number of posts and linked them to your own life world experiences. The upgrade in education is needed but given that teaching is a cultural practice, that will not be happening in the short term. I like Richard Elmore’s comment that this culture has been defeating people who try to change it for decades. He suggests you don’t change a culture like this – you replace it!
Rita
Rachael // October 25, 2009 at 9:40 am |
Hi Prue,
Great post!
I agree with Rita, I really like the way you have drawn key ideas together and added some interesting clips and articles to think about.
Having just spent an hour and a half playing a video game (yes… I am back on a bejewelled bender), I can understand the addictive nature of video games.
However, as you say lots of other things are addictive too! I can also get into reading a good novel and do that for 18 hours straight… or I can get addicted to exercise (I wish that addiction would come back!)…. or I can get addicted to sudoku puzzles… or many other things. There are always going to be people who cannot control their obsessions and take them to extremes neglecting other aspects of their lives. Just look at the number of people with gambling, drug and alcohol problems.
This fear of video games is unfounded and as you point out, represents a fear of the rapid changes happening in our society.
I agree with you, education does need to shift to reflect these changes. They are here to stay.
Rachael
Prue // October 25, 2009 at 3:41 pm |
After reading everyones I didn’t have any original ideas left … so it seemed easier to use other peoples works which really said it all!