Education and Gaming

The digital world of gaming unarguably has great potential to as a developmental tool for young people on many different levels. We already established yesterday that if the appropriate type of game is used the social and team building components of a game combined with a system that rewards ethical behavior can be a very valuable tool in developing a stronger, more ethical character. Today's readings assert that with a few tweaks, games with sound moral content, such as WoW, may be used to help effectively teach students, who are living in a digitally--immersed world, a variety of invaluable subjects.


Students may study the expected schoolroom subjects, such as math, as well as social studies, science, and may even obtain valuable computer and digital social skills, which is vital for success in this day and age. As the readings mentioned, just as is usually the case, this emerging teaching tool is just that: a tool. It is not intended to replace a parent or teacher's guidance, and should be done as a parent or teacher/ student activity together. There is no teaching tool that could possibly match the human contact and attention that children require, and the student has much less of a chance to learn to their full potential without these things.

I happen to have to pre--teen sons who have been playing versions of RPG games-- not online until recently-- since they were four and five years old. When my son David started to play Age of Mythology he obviously did not understand certain aspects of the game, but with my help, he played the game for hours. (He still does on occasion.) As the years wore on, and he continued to play, his knowledge and appreciation of the game became more sophisticated, and he fully understands this game along with others such as Age of Empires. This particular pastime sparked an interest in history that spread to science and even math, and both of my children having reading levels that exceed many high school children and can tell me stories about Attila the Hun's battle techniques. It would seem that their gaming activity has had a very positive effect on their learning experience, and if used properly, gaming applications could become very useful in the classroom.