Video Games, Kids, and their Future

The fast development of technology in recent decades gave birth to one entertainment phenomenon embraced by kids and adults alike: video games. Video games are a worldwide entertainment source and can be played in arcades, at home, at work, on the Internet, and virtually anywhere.

However, much has been said about the supposed negative effects of video games on kids. While adults can be adults and not many will care if they sneak around at work to play or relieve of stress by playing at home, the video game addiction of kids have been met with a lot of negative response. After all, according to studies, there is a direct inverse correlation between the hours spent every day by a kid playing video games and his performance at school.

Among the said causes of this is that students devote less time on homework or don’t do it at all in exchange for more hours spent on video games. This affects grades and learning capability. Furthermore, excessive video game playing after school can lead to addiction, to the point that anything beyond it may seem boring or slow to a student, such as classes and listening to the teacher. Thus, most educators worry that the decline of performance in school may lead to a serious lack of career goals, which may become a habit, which in turn can highly affect a kid’s future.

To combat this, educators worldwide have decided to transform the “enemy technology” into an ally. If video games normally take away students from learning, this time video games would be used to actually enhance their learning and make them enjoy it more. It starts with the premise that video games are built to be engaging and entertaining. It is the foundation of its popularity. The strategy of educators is to use this engaging and entertaining medium in the classroom to hook students to learning the way they are hooked to the games.

A major selling point of video games is that the group games encourage a lot of interactivity and teamwork. When a group of kids are involved in a video game, there is intense sharing that happens so naturally and effortlessly and there is a high level of enthusiasm that most teachers dream of seeing in their students within the four walls of the classroom. Educators know that such level of enthusiasm and vigor is a major key in learning.

The key factors required in video games are incorporated in video game learning in the classroom. For instance, in a regular video game, the kid always aims to increase his level and improve. A “game over” means he was not able to meet the standards and that he should try harder to win. In the learning setting, poor performance in a certain level does not instantly translate to failure, but rather, as a challenge. The challenge is on how to improve by learning to study the task at hand, being familiar with it, and conceptualizing strategies. The student is encouraged to think and think in order to win.

Another aspect is fast and focused thinking. In a normal video game, a player who is often distracted and thinks slow will never win. This is applied in educational video games by making sure the student is constantly alert on the educational task and does not have time to be distracted by other things, so as not to “lose”. Another great concept of video game learning is the increasing levels of difficulty, wherein students’ thinking and intellectual capabilities are much fostered to improve and grow to its maximum capabilities.

It may seem simple enough to integrate all the aspects of normal video games to educational video games, but the fact is there are a lot of factors to consider and features to incorporate to make sure effective learning is achieved through the medium.

For one, the design of the games is very essential. One of the most helpful features that must be incorporated in educational video games is interactivity. The reason why video games are a hit with players is because players make things happen and not just watch things happen. It gives a sense of challenge and pride once you have beat an opponent or conquered a situation, because you know you have done that. In an education video game, it will be a lot more effective if the student still has that feel of making things happen, whether it is through reading, writing, math games, or more. There is a deeper learning involved when there is a sense of ownership of a situation.

Another important feature is competition and collaboration. Kids enjoy having a sense of competition and at the same time being in a team with the same goal when playing group video games. For instance, when playing a game like Warcraft, there is intense competition and collaboration as well. The competition aspect challenges one to think a lot to not be defeated, while the collaboration balances this out by encouraging one to think and conceptualize in order to help a team or a partner.

Simulation of a complex system is another great feature video games can contribute to learning. For instance, it’s hard to teach science and atoms and inventions of things through pictures and imagination only. When students see it moving right before their very eyes and through their own control to an extent, it becomes more embedded in their minds as compared to when it’s just regularly taught in the classroom.

With these factors and more incorporated in the academic learning, teachers can now fuse traditional yet effective educating strategies with the modern offerings of technology. They just have to remember to set the goals, explain how an activity works, chart student’s progress through built in evaluations and at the same time through close monitoring and traditional tests, and then use such to evaluate both the performance growth of the students and the effectiveness of the video game. And all the learning should follow.