Our Brains on Video Games

What do you think when the words "video game" are uttered. Our class consensus was that they were violent, time consuming and promoted obesity and laziness. At the start of this particular assignment I thought the same thing, nothing good could come of them and they were basically a waste of time. However, within the past week I can honestly say that I will never look at video games the same again.

In class we watched an interesting Ted talk and I encourage you to watch it. In the video I learned violent children may become more violent because of violent video games. Video games train our minds and violence is one of the things that can be trained, if the student is already prone to violence. Do you know the difference between crystalline intelligence and fluid intelligence? Stable or falling IQ is crystalline intelligence and fluid intelligence is rising and rising fast IQ, I had no idea there more than one kind. Also, Natural aspects of video games: seeking novelty, challenging yourself, thinking creatively, doing things the hard way and networking, are directly linked to an increase of intelligence. Who knew just by being a gamer, in moderation, could potentially increase your intelligence. However, the most important thing I learned is that we may be able to reach our students through video game based teaching in the classroom.

Actually, in Chelsea, NY in the fall of 2009 there was a school built based on a video game curriculum, Quest to Learn. This school encourages children in grades 6-12 to learn in a game-like manner. Of course, the curriculum was based on state standards but was also designed as interdisciplinary, organized and had the culture of youth in mind. This school is obviously different already but to make things more interesting the students are taught in a 21st century way through digital learning, lots of hands on projects and to create a system based learning "not just a teacher standing in front of a blackboard, they interact and hardly ever do they just sit in front of books all day, nor just computer screens." An example of this would be to make learning more interesting by creating a story: Dr. Smallz shrunk down to a tiny size, small enough to fit inside of one of his patience bodies but when he did, so he lost all of his knowledge of the human body and dangers that may be lurking by (stomach acid for example). So, the students had to help him navigate through the patient and the students had to take samples and look under a microscope to test for diseases to see how to cure the patient. Sounds fun right, and how can you not see the potential for a better way of teaching anatomy and physiology not to mention diseases and how to cure them? You may wonder about how the students from this school did on tests and how video games, not to mention a video game curriculum can actually help our children and students. Well, we know its working because a DOA survey proved that students had 97 percent of engagement with work. The school won the city wide math Olympiad  their 7th and 8th graders against 9th and 10th graders Lastly, during standardized testing all but 1 student passed out of all 81 students attending the school.

In conclusion, video games are not what there cracked up to be, they may actually be a useful tool in the classroom that can make learning more fun for our digital age of students. Our students are so use to the technology in front of them, why not use it to our advantage and make learning fun?