Digital Games And Kids - A Different Perspective

The "Wikipedia problem" meaning children turning to internet for readymade answers is the brand new age phenomenon baffling teachers and mentors globally. You can find almost equal amounts of teachers who consider technology to be a solution around a problem. While a standard belief is that technology is hindering the students'capacity to consider and analyze, there's also a solid opinion in support of video games and digital gadgets'ability to interact students and enhance learning by using multiple sensory stimulators. Notwithstanding the growing concern about the students'deteriorating attention spans, institutions are incorporating them in the act of classroom learning.

Children are inherently inquisitive creatures. They've a curiosity to find out new things and learn by way of discovering and experimenting even before they're put through types of formal education such as reading or writing. Science is really a discipline of experiments and discoveries. The National Science Education Standards emphasize that "science education needs to offer students three kinds of scientific skills and understandings. Students need to learn the principles and concepts of science, acquire the reasoning and procedural skills of scientists, and understand the nature of science as a specific kind of human endeavor. Students therefore have to manage to devise and carry out investigations that test their ideas, and they should understand just why such investigations are uniquely powerful. Studies reveal that students are much more prone to understand and retain the concepts they have learned in this manner ".Hence, it becomes imperative to interact children in science education at an early stage.

Digital games tend to be more capable to achieve students'interests and attention than other conventional method of imparting education in a classroom. However, some educationists also regard them as culprits of exponential decline in the attention span in children. The following sections in this article discuss the involvement of children in games in the tech age, types of games available available in the market and the impact of digital gaming as learning aids in classrooms.

Gaming and the New Age Kids

Digital technology has expanded the horizons of video gaming in the present day world. Kids are put through far more technical and challenging technological environment than their counterparts were from over half a century back. Involvement of kids in digital gaming is a result of many significant changes in the lifestyle and culture of the present day society. Easy accessibility of technology, dispensable income due to dual income families and lack of infrastructure for outdoor activities in many cities are some major contributors to make screen games an important part of the children's'lives. A study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) discovered that only 20 percent of the census blocks are within half a distance of a block boundary. Also, the effectation of peer pressure can't be undermined in these times of social networking Gaming.

The digital gaming market is one of the fastest growing segments of the global entertainment industry. US is witnessing unprecedented penetration of digital games amongst youngsters. In the US, 97% of the teens play some type of game on a typical basis. In India, the gaming market has grown manifold in the last few years. Hence, it is imperative that educationists are continuously contemplating the use of digital gaming as an understanding tool in classrooms. Institutions are also employing innovative methods to leverage the digital advantage for enhancing the learning experience at schools.

What are Digital Games?

There is no concrete definition of games as it might vary having an individual's preference and profession. Games may be defined as a "system by which players take part in artificial conflict, defined by rules, which cause a quantifiable outcome ".Technology and digitization add new dimensions to games where simulations, interactivity, augmented reality, alternative reality, collective intelligence and sensory stimulators such as sound and visual effects. Digital games are also characterized by their portability and limitless accessibility.

Role-playing games, simulation games and puzzles are some of the most used digital games. In role-playing games, the player enacts the role of a specific character in an electronic world moving from one level to the other on the basis of the outcome of the sooner level. RPGs may be single player including the dungeons and dragons from earlier days of gaming or multi-player games such as Diablo III, Xenoblade, Final Fantasy XIII-2 or Mass Effect 3. MMORPG or the Massive Multiple Online Role-Playing Games are an expansion of the RPGs where large quantity of players interacts in an online virtual world. Simulation games create realistic situations in virtual worlds. The results depends on the player's decision-making and responsiveness and is likely to be closely similar from what may happen in a real life in exactly the same situation. Widely used in training and analysis, simulation games are also popular because of the unpredictable and personalized outcomes. Flight Simulator X, Live for Speed (LFS) and Need for Speed have now been extremely popular simulation games for a long time. Puzzles genre of digital games involves problem solving and analysis with varying levels of difficulty depending on the nature of the game. Crosswords and treasure hunt games are basic kinds of puzzle games in both physical and digital form.

All types of digital games involve a social involvement of players. Some need collaborative efforts to play while others might be discussed or analyzed socially. Notwithstanding some games being accused of outright violent visual effects, a well-designed game can accelerate the thinking process by motivating, engaging, involving creativity and creating a meta-game i.e., social interactions inspired and enhanced inside or away from game. Incorporating digital gaming in the basic education framework can result in augmented competitiveness and multi-dimensional growth in children.

Digital Games in Science Education - Why and Why Not?

The 21st century requires the mentors and the students to integrate technology into the curriculum. Though the ultimate goal is always to benefit the students in terms of learning and experience, unsupervised, unorganized or irrelevant application can lead to complete failure or have negative effects. A few of the negative impacts of digital games generally speaking and in context with the education are listed below:

Digital games have now been facing constant rebuke for allegedly enhancing aggression amongst kids and creating a violent streak at an early stage. In a study by Anderson and Bushman (2001), Children associated with violent video games are more prone to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping. Use of weapons and being rewarded to be violent is really a reason behind widespread concern.

Digital games may be addictive for children and make them physically inactive. Digital games, apart from social networking, are thought for reduced physical exercise leading to obesity in kids and postural and skeletal disorders.

Addiction to games can be known to create kids socially secluded. Impulsive behavior, depression and increased anxiety levels are largely attributed to excessive gaming in children. Some studies also claim that the youngsters playing games cannot concentrate for a long span and have reduced attention span.

Children are vulnerable to absorbing socially unacceptable behavior through some digital games such as using profanities and ill-treating the fairer sex. Insufficient adequate knowledge about screening the material available online is an increasing concern between the parents.

Digital games are thought a burden to higher performance in academics. Students tend to be found to skip homework to play games leading to deteriorated performance at school. However, despite their reputation as promoters of violence and mayhem, digital games have in reality been shown to help children learn skills, content, and vital "21st-century" skills. From digital games children can learn: content (from rich vocabulary to science to history), skills (from literacy to math to complex problem-solving), creation of artifacts (from videos to software code) and systems thinking (how changing one element affects relationships as a whole). Strong arguments in support of using digital games as learning aids in secondary education are summarized below:

Digital games involve extreme hand-eye coordination and enhance motor and sensory skills. Sensory stimulation theory proposed by academician Laird (1985) validates that effective learning occurs once the senses are stimulated. While some studies reveal that digital gaming reduces attention span, there are strong evidences of improved concentration simply speaking intervals of time. Digital games involve keeping a watch on every detail, follow the guidelines and respond proactively to the given situation. Complex digital games help is developing problem-solving and decision-making skills. Some games also involve logical analysis of the specific situation and pattern recognition and improve memorizing thus assisting in the cognitive process. Playing by the guidelines teaches children to simply accept and respect a certain level of discipline.

Multi-player digital games produce a sense of constructive competitive attitude. Collaborative games also improve team-building attitude. They develop time management skills in a group and train the players to cooperate for mutually desired goal. They teach the players to simply accept defeat along with strive for better results. Digital games offer an avenue for hyperactive kids to direct the power in a constructive system based game. They also provide a store to release aggression and frustration, thus helping in diffusing stress. Some games also involve physical exercise such as Nintendo Wii boxing helping kids to interact mentally and physically with the kids. Complex digital games involve advanced level of multitasking thus improving brain's natural learning process. Brain based learning theory proposes that multi-tasking can be an inherent activity of the brain and learning is enhanced by challenges at various levels. Digital games develop efficient situational analysis and strategy making in children. Since games have certain objectives at every level and your final objective of the game, it teaches players to devise short term and long-term strategies such as scoring points, retaining energy and attaining the ultimate goal of the game. Simulation games and the role-playing digital games help players gain expertise or learn by experiencing in replicas of real life situations. Experiential learning and action learning theories are on the basis of the premise that individuals learn faster if they by experiencing and actually participating in action.
"Games require the kind of thinking that we truly need in the 21st Century because they use actual learning as the basis for assessment. They test not only current knowledge and skills, but also preparation for future learning. They measure 21st century skills like collaboration, innovation, production, and design by tracking many different kinds of information regarding a student, over time. "