Why Does the Media Still Think Video Games are Bad for Kids?
8.9.10 | Experts say video games can help children develop complex critical thinking skills, experiment at their own pace, and learn from their own mistakes. So why does the media still focus only on the negatives of video gaming?
Tech consultant Scott Steinberg writes at CNN.com that “some 30 years after video games became a popular form of mainstream entertainment, we’re still liable to hear less about games’ positive impact on kids’ lives than sensationalistic accounts of their hidden dangers.”
Steinberg, founder of GameExec magazine and Game Industry TV, argues that the effects of games on children depends on “fundamental playing habits, exposure to age-appropriate content and, most vitally, active parental involvement.”
Steinberg quotes several experts, including David Thomas, who teaches critical video game theory at the University of Colorado. Thomas argues that like any other medium, games require “reasonable balance and oversight.”
“We live in a media-rich world, and video games are part of that diet,” he says. “Kids are incredibly savvy these days. But being children, they still need guidance. Games can be beneficial to children as a modern form of media, albeit one that they need to learn how to use, cope with, contextualize and manage.”
“Games aren’t solely an entertainment medium anymore,” says Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
“[G]ames like ‘LittleBigPlanet’ foster creativity, while online games such as ‘Toontown’ teach lessons on teamwork and community, and the “Professor Layton” series focuses on critical thinking and puzzle solving,” Olin says. “Games illustrate the concept of risk and reward in a manner that’s comprehensible and engaging.”
Read the full story here.
For more on the educational benefits of “LittleBigPlanet,” visit the Digital Media & Learning Competition, which earlier this year awarded $250,000 to nine teams that promoted science, technology, engineering and math through digital media and games—specifically by creating new adventures for “LittleBigPlanet” and “Spore Galactic Adventures.” Meet winners Patrick Keller and David Dino.
Related: At Spotlight, media scholar James Gee talks with Heather Chaplin, author of “Smartbomb,” about how games influence learning. In this video interview, Nichole Pinkard, founder of the Chicago-based afterschool program Digital Youth Network, talks with Quest2Learn’s Katie Salen about how game design can be applied to learning in the classroom.
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