In most homes where a pre-teen or teenager resides you can probably find some video games lying around somewhere. Even some adults enjoy sneaking away to play these games. What at first appears as an idle waste of time is now seen in a different light. Video games in education have gained some of the legitimacy that they never enjoyed before.
Games Are Important, But Not All Are Created Equal
The theory that video games are helpful to education gains legitimacy through the work of Dr. Sandra Adams of St. John’s University. Techtimes.com quotes her in an article on their website,
One of Abrams’ main points was that everyone learns differently, and someone who is good at a sports game and might be getting a lot from those games might not be developing skills playing other games, like the latest Call Of Duty game. Not only is every person different in how they learn, but every game will provide a different experience for each person, too.
What this means is that not every single video game has some material benefit to every person. There is no reason to get overly excited about each new video game released. Still, there are some potentially great educational benefits in video games.
How Could This Impact The Classroom?
It is difficult to imagine video games in the classroom for good reasons. They are unlikely to appear in the classroom in the very near future. That being said, they could be used to replace certain worksheets and other activities that were previously commonplace.
Dr. Adams believes that this is the most likely area that one could see video games playing a role in education. Some consider them a substitute for some of the same lessons taught via other methods in the past. Those who have already finished their school years are surely jealous of the ways that children may get to learn today.
