Summary
The popularity of video games is growing, making people consider the games’ educational potential. Some claim that video games may be a learning tool to teach children to overcome obstacles, collaborate with others, and hone their social skills. Others say that playing video games leads to isolation and poor health, and cannot be considered a tool for education. This paper examines the potential benefits of video games and states that these benefits are inconsistent and often far-fetched. The negative consequences of playing video games substantially override any benefits they may have in the educational process.
Potential Benefits of Video Games as a Learning Tool
Video game champions usually speak about the advantageous effects of games on children’s cognitive function. Thus, Zeng et al. state that video games improve brain function when performing a narrow set of tasks. Several studies have shown their effectiveness in mastering a second language and studying mathematics and natural sciences (Zeng et al.).
However, these potential benefits are largely counterbalanced by the adverse consequences of playing video games, such as negatively impacting learners’ moods. Indeed, while some video games foster learning, this process is often accompanied by aggressive behavior on the part of players. In such cases, the issue of learning benefits becomes secondary to the adverse influence of video games on a person’s psyche.
Another benefit is that including video games in the learning process makes it much more interesting and entertaining, improving the receptivity of educational material. The downside of this approach is that children become less interested in the traditional learning process, which leads to a loss of motivation in usual classes, which look blank compared to video gaming. Strategy games contribute to developing perseverance, planning actions, and training children’s thinking (Zeng et al.). However, these games are unsuitable for many schoolchildren because of their long duration. Indeed, instead of learning, children often become overtired and moody, and still cannot leave the game because of the sense of addiction it creates.
Such games as arcades can be used to train the eye, attention, and reaction speed. Nonetheless, a long time spent on video gaming may seriously damage children’s eyesight and result in an inability to focus on anything apart from playing (Quwaider et al.). Logical games are believed to develop memory, thinking, and attention (Zeng et al.). Regular mental load in video games contributes to developing executive functions and rapid information processing, increasing thinking speed (Zeng et al.). However, when too much time is spent on gaming, the child may be unwilling to communicate with friends, lose interest in studies, and go into the virtual world, which is more fascinating.
Disadvantages
With all their advantages as learning tools, video games have many disadvantages, too. They affect children’s psyche and behavior because children are not so resistant to engaging techniques used in video games. If children do not control their emotions well, instead of developing communicative skills, they may enter into conflicts with other players.
Moreover, video games make the real world, mainly traditional classes, look blank compared to games, so a child may be willing to lose themself in virtual reality. In games, all the problems are easily solved just by restarting the game, which never happens in real life. That is why children do not learn resilience but expect all the problems to be easily solved.
Works Cited
Quwaider, Muhannad, Abdullah Alabed, and Rehab Duwairi. “The impact of video games on the players behaviors: A survey.” Procedia Computer Science, vol. 151, 2019, pp. 575-582. Web.
Zeng, Jialing, Sophie Parks, and Junjie Shang. “To learn scientifically, effectively, and enjoyably: A review of educational games.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies vol. 2, no. 2, 2020, pp. 186-195. Web.