Wow, a motion at this conference to eliminate video games for children. Lets take a close look at the article from the Guardian and conference against video games. I have quoted the article and broken it out into pieces and then commented on the section. Overall, this article was poorly written and there is absolutely no research backing up any of the claims made…at least they didnt cite any research. My feeling is that these are the same people who wanted to ban Harry Potter.
“Primary school teachers said the games were making their pupils far more aggressive and addicted to “fantasy worlds that separate them from reality”.”
This is what people said about TV and comic books when I was growing up. I was pretending to be a star wars character and they thought that meant I was going to turn out crazy. Little did they know I would end up being successful in the corporate world then move on to get a Ph.D. and become a college professor.
“Doctors found children who continually play computer games may be more likely to develop tendinitis – an inflammation between the muscles and bones – and suffer from seizures, teachers said.”
This is hilarious. If this was the best reason they could find why children shouldnt play video games their argument is pretty laughable. Also, they didnt even cite where this came from. What doctors? What study? More likely than who, children that just watched tv?
“Psychologists have expressed concerns that playing some games make children more aggressive.
The teachers fear that by spending hours alone playing the games, children could become anti-social and slow to develop speaking and listening skills. Many pupils arrive at school exhausted having played the games until the early hours of the morning, they said.”
Lets see, both of these statements are actually contradictory of the research on gaming and education. Did they look at whats really happening or just talk to a psychologist and teacher at the conference against gaming? And what games make children more aggressive? There are ratings on games. I would expect children to react differently to R rated movies than PG movies just as I would to a game rated M for Mature game. If we are talking about games rated M (17 year old+) then the conversation needs not to be about the games, rather about the parents letting their kids play these games.
“Alison Sherratt, a teacher at Riddlesden St Mary’s Church of England primary school in Keighley, West Yorkshire, said her four- and five-year-old pupils spend their breaks pretending to “throw themselves out of the window of the play car in slow motion” and act out blood “spurting from their bodies”.
“We all expect to see rough and tumble, but I have seen little ones acting out quite graphic scenes in the playground and there is a lot more hitting, hurting and thumping in the classroom for no particular reason.”
This is call ‘boys being boys’ In kindergarten me and my friends used to build guns out of Legos and pretend to shoot each other just like they star wars, gi joe, etc. Oddly enough all of us turned out pretty normal. I think in today’s classroom I would be expelled from school for no tolerance.
“Obesity, social exclusion, loneliness, physical fitness, sedentary solitary lives – these are all descriptions of children who are already hooked to games … Sadly there is a notable correlation between the children who admit to playing games and those who come to school really tired,” she said.
There is a correlation? Please show us the study. There is NO correlation this is someone making up fake information.
Overall, this article is pretty bad. I would love to speak the author or at least show them my take on it. I could actually show research that supports gaming in the classroom. We have a lot of research showing gaming can improve achievement (learning), social interaction, and increase student motivation. This article and conference from what I can tell did not speak about any positives, look at any research, and instead seemed more like a witch hunt. Maybe these teachers should focus more on teaching students to analyze, critique, and evaluate…or maybe they should learn to do that themselves?