Strings

I have been spending some time thinking about my learning project. But I thought about this from a different perspective of learning. The improvement of my gaming skills was not the only, singular way I was learning.

Perhaps this is a slightly lateral way of thinking, but in another one of my classes, I was to do a presentation about technology in education. And of course, I wanted to do a piece on gaming in education. While doing my research, I found several ways that gaming improves general academic intelligence. I suppose I was expecting this, but the stereotype of video games being a waste of time made me slightly skeptical. Upon some cautious criticism, I found the articles I read to be entirely correct.

I found that gaming can actually improve things like literacy, problem solving, collaboration efforts and leadership skills. Many young children detest reading but will not hesitate for a moment before reading instruction manuals or tutorials for their games. Not only that, but many role-playing games require a sense of finances in order to purchase things like items or weapons. Numeracy is a part of many video games, whether it is a countdown of experience points before leveling up, saving gold for new equipment, or in my game, watching the damage percentage rise in proportion to the distance the opponent will fly. If the game involves other players, or even an artificial intelligence, then the player must learn to work with the others. These are all skills that are useful outside the virtual world of gaming.

I said myself in an earlier post that I improved much more quickly when playing with another person. Aside from learning academic skills, games can add to a person’s interpersonal skills. Technology can sometimes be limiting to social interaction. Now it is more common to text a friend than to actually talk to one in person. In my game, I can interact with a person both inside a virtual realm, but also in person. If the game is available online, then even global interaction is possible. Perhaps gaming may also develop a person’s intrapersonal skills. Because the decisions made in a game have no consequences, the player may act in a different way than he normally would. Maybe this would be for fear of social reaction, or of the more immediate consequences. I suppose if you see someone playing games that involve violence, could he have a desire to actually do as he does in the game? Maybe logic has suppressed the actions of this person, but this is a common concern of violent gaming. Nervous parents worry about exposing their children to violence in case they actually become violent as well.

Maybe this entire post was a stretch, but I thought it was an interesting strand of thought to explore. Any type of life experience has multiple possible dimensions of learning, and I think I may have uncovered a bit more.