Games can help kids learn
More than just gore, games can be beneficial to learning.
From The Guardian, 'Research into games, conducted by the [London University's Institute of Education] Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media and partly funded by the Department for Trade and Industry, also suggests youngsters could develop their literacy skills by writing games programmes as well as studying existing ones.'
'Caroline Pelletier, who is managing the project, said: 'Like all games, computer and video games entertain while promoting social development, and playing and talking about games is an important part of young people's lives. Game literacy is, as a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing.''
'Researchers, who presented their findings at a seminar in London last night, believe games deserve to be treated by schools with the same seriousness as books and films. Andrew Burn, the associate director of the children, youth and media centre, said: 'Games are a cultural form that is just beginning to evolve and the evidence is they can be every bit as rich and complex and nuanced as a book or a film.''
'The perception that computer games are predominantly violent and bloodthirsty - a view perpetuated by explicit links with games in some murder cases - is incorrect, the researchers say. Many involve imaginative role play, while in the biggest selling game of all time, The Sims, players construct virtual families. 'You just put the characters together in a house and keep them happy,' Dr Burn said. 'People who don't know about games obviously have a distorted and reductive view of them.''
'As part of their continuing three-year project, academics worked with children at Charles Edward Brooke School in Lambeth, south London, using traditional games such as snakes and ladders as well as computer games to encourage the youngsters to consider the challenges and game principles lying beneath the stories involving Lara Croft and other anatomically unlikely characters.'
Posted by Al on 10/27 at 04:55 PM |