Positive impacts of video games
- Helps gamers learn how to follow instructions. The argument behind this point is that gaming requires both abstract and high levels of thinking which follows a logical flow that might not be so obvious at school. This view is supported by a game designer when she says “gaming can make a better world.” In (“Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Talk Video | TED.com,” n.d.) She says the reality is Brocken and needs fixing.
- Some of the positive gains that are associated with playing video games include quick thinking of making fast analytical decisions for developing perseverance. The more a player completes levels in the game, the more he finds more difficult levels that require patience to complete and often fail at first trials. Reading instructions from the games improves the reading skills of the players. Now, these are real and almost practical, positive gains from gaming that perhaps parents might find hard to punch holes into.
Negative impacts of video games
- For those that advocate for negative effects of video games, their arguments are a result of some video games having violent features, and for this reason, they teach the players these negative attributes too. The players of such games become violent to their teachers, friends, and become isolated.
- Another real and imminent danger is that today there are online games that children can play. There is that risk of being exposed to materials that they are not meant to be exposed to at that age.
Gamification can both be used as a positive thing or a negative thing. On the positive side, gamification allows users to see how close they are to their set goals through feedback provided by the game providers. As such, children learn a very important aspect of judging how far or how close they are to their goals as determined by the feedback they get. Gamification also comes in the form of competition, this way students again learn the aspect of working hard so as to beat competition from their fellow students. Gamification is also the new era of motivation both in schools and even in the workplace.
Gamification entails people who enjoy actively engage and participate with others through entertainment. As such children will at all times be affected positively through communication and rewards that come with the gaming itself. Simply by learning how to perform a task through gamification enforces the value of the task itself.
On the negative side, gamification nowadays comes with a lack of originality where everything is set, and users simply have to follow what is presented before them. As such, students tend to become lazy and wait for everything to be done for them. Children will thus not be able to cope up with the challenge of creativity and innovation that the present world requires today. Gamification also stresses on users being the best and reaching the highest level of superiority. This is a problem as it comes with the wrong motivation.
Is gaming responsible for poor performance?
So now we have established that there are both positive and negative effects of this gaming situation. The question that comes is, then is playing video games the key contributor to the low grades that are scored in schools. The answer is both yes and no. not all persons who play video games perform poorly and also even some of the persons who don’t play video games still score low grades. On the other hand, the majority of persons, who play video games score low grades, meaning that it is a contributing factor to their dismal performance.
The basic idea behind her thinking is that by introducing gaming into classrooms, we will not only be introducing an effective way of learning but also that we will be able to keep the students interested.
Works Cited
“Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning | Talk Video | TED.com.” TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., n.d. Web.
“Gabe Zichermann: How games make kids smarter | Talk Video | TED.com.” TED:Ideas worth spreading. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 (1), 11-14.
“Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Talk Video | TED.com.” TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., n.d. Web.