This is for all the gentlemen out there who play video games. Ladies, I apologise in advance.
Okay, so I'm sitting at my kitchen table right now watching my roommates playing the old NHL on the old Nintendo. And I had never thought of it before but video games have some educational purposes.
That's right I said it. Educational. My roommates would so proud right now.
The games including shooters enhance eye hand coordination, mental stimulation. "Cognitive ethnography is an apt methodology for the study of learning with games, in virtual worlds, and the study of activity systems, whether they are mediated digitally or not" (vgalt, 2012).The web page that I found to go along with my recent understanding of video games outlines many reasons as to why video games are beneficial.
For the most part the article goes on to justify video games as "a literate practise in an authentic context" (vgalt, 2012). It pretty much says that gaming is more than just a game. It is a form of literature which enhances and teaches valuable skills needed for everyday life.
I am not sure how i feel about this but I will admit, my roommates have better eye hand coordination than I do. i attempted to play Call of Duty a couple of times and I am unable to look around and walk at the same time. I'm not convinced that gaming enhance the abilities mentioned above in the picture from he site but I do believe it can be beneficial.
SO, I may take the articles advice and before I decide where I stand - I will create my own ethnography of gaming... That means I get to take time from studying to play games, right?
This is a great topic and great review. I would have to agree that gaming is a great way to learn, though there are some games that are limited. I'm a pretty big gamer myself and play some real-time strategy games that are basically a super complex game of risk. Games like this involve true engagement and critical thinking skills and require you to make quick decisions under pressure in order to succeed. Not only that but you learn about many groups of people other than European colonialists where warfare is not the only means of success. Also, like you mentioned, coordination is a major outcome of gaming. There has been discussion of implementing some game-like learning tools in the educations system as a way of attracting students and engaging them in course materials, something that could be quite successful in my opinion, methods like this could be used to refrain from drugging kids to make them pay attention. Video games in school may sound ridiculous but it seems better than drugging students.
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