Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

9.2.10 | Seann Dikkers, a Ph.D candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison, is working on translating digital innovations like mobile phones and video games into tools educators can use in the classroom.

In addition to being a former teacher and administrator himself, Dikkers is also a parent to 12-year-old Grant and 9-year-old Katie.

It’s the parenting hat that he’s wearing in a recent interview at WhatTheyPlay.com, which gives him a special kind of authority on games and learning. 

Dikkers, who blogged with Spotlight in the past about his work on mobile media, points out how parents can use the gaming experience to teach kids important skills like self-control, critical thinking and how to socialize within a community.

Dikkers points to one example where he watched his son repeat models of good sportsmanship on the soccer field that he had first learned while playing “World of Warcraft.”

And in another example, when one particular game leads to a lot of arguments at home, Dikkers worked with his children to pick a different game, until they could work out a solution. Playing the game for only short amounts of time reduced the arguments.

“One of the things games did for us on a basic level was give us a context to talk about self-control,” said Dikkers. “The ability to walk away from engaging entertainment is a valuable skill to learn.”

Dikkers recommends parents give a 20-minute warning rule before asking kids to turn a game off, giving kids plenty of time to save where they are in the game.

You can read the full interview here. (Hat tip to Anne Collier.)

If you’re new to gaming, Dikkers has a great list of games to start with on his website, where you can also read more about the work he’s doing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Among other things, Dikkers and his colleagues—including Kurt Squire, director of the Games, Learning & Society Initiative—have developed the ARIS application for the iPhone that we wrote about back in May. Short for Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling, the app enables educators to create their own place-based mobile games to use in the classroom.

PLUS: For more on parenting in the digital age, read Spotlight’s “It’s 10 p.m. Online, Do You Know Where Your Parents Are?”