What Is The World Coming To?

The cover story in the September issue of Ode magazine is about the use of video and computer games in education. I can hear the protests now: “What is the world coming to?” What the world has already come to is the digital age. Unfortunately, education has not caught up. This is confirmed in another cover story appearing in the latest edition of Time magazine.

Both articles make the point that success in the 21st century depends upon the ability to think, analyze, and synthesize. This doesn’t sound much different to me than what has always been needed to succeed. But educators who have incorporated gaming into their courses claim that computer games teach these skills better than fact-laden textbooks.

I am not going to take time to get into all the arguments for and against video games. I refer you to the Ode article (http://www.odemagazine.com/backIssue.php?oID=216). One point the article makes is that those who play the games are usually under the age of 40, while the critics of gaming tend to be older and have rarely played the games themselves. Game developer Marc Prensky differentiates between digital natives and digital immigrants. The natives are those who grew up with digital technology. Those who came to computers later in life are referred to as digital immigrants. I am an immigrant to the digital world. My image of gamers is of antisocial, zoned-out teens with glazed eyes and brains of mush. The Ode article opened my mind to the beneficial aspects of gaming. Those involved in gaming claim that games encourage learning, problem solving, creativity, perseverance, and self-confidence. And the claim that games isolate youths is refuted by the fact that many games involve team play.

The arguments put forth in the Ode article for the educational benefits of computer games have prompted me to explore this mode of learning more closely. The article includes a list of resources on the use of games in education as well as the web addresses of suggested games. I am already exploring how I might experiment with computer games in my own classes. So before you chide your students for playing computer games, keep in mind they may very well be working on a class assignment. What is the world coming to?