Clifford
Nordstrom
Paper
#3 English 101 5:30
Dr.
Sonia Bergert
Dec
1, 2015
Video Games in Education,
good or bad?
The
question I would like to ask is, are Video games harmful to children and are
video games in education worth investing in? That answer is debatable though in
my opinion video games are indeed worth investing in as far as education. There
has been heavy and heated debates on whether or not games are good or bad, and
it is true in some aspects bad for instance, having a child who is young and does
not know much about violence will play some games that are prone to violence
and would be more susceptible to be violent. Though video games do have the
habit of being violent and in a manner of speaking bloody. There is in fact a
rated restriction and when buying games meant for adults one has to have
parental guidance or a type of identity that determines you are of age to
consider buying this type of game. The main reason why I would like to talk
about video games is because of the excellent use we can gain by introducing
schools with educational games. Students may be able to problem solve and be
more logical in decision making.
Though
games can teach us many things through out or youth but with poor guidance and
access to violent games can teach us that violent is welcomed. The brain is
figuratively made of plastic and has the ability to become lopsided. In the
book Game Addiction, Niels Clark says, “Our brains are custom tailored and
physically shapes our environment including interactions with others.”(120) He
also states, “Lack of stimulation of the brain and body may result in
intellectual, creative, social and/or physical defects.”(120) Children are very
impressionable and can easily miss out on important stimulation necessary for
brain development. Child influenced by games may become addicted or dependent
and may be withdrawn from society. The child may be more aggressive when not
playing games and become mentally and physically unstable due to the low amount
of “stimulation”(120) being processed in the brain. I myself have witnessed
firsthand of what it is like to have a loved one highly addicted to video
games. The person I knew had parents who weren’t always there and through video
games channeled their stress, anger and sorrow to the point where they would
skip whole days without meals and rarely took showers to only become unhealthy
to the point of physically breaking down. They eventually sought help and was
later rehabilitated where they could have a decent standing in life. Video
games are labeled with rated according to age restrictions though a video game
may be labeled 17+ and rated M for mature, the parents of the children actively
buy the rated M games for their children and live in a state of denial thinking
that their child would be alright with violence in video games. Some parents
leave their children alone and let games do their babysitting which is not a
good idea and by leaving a child on a video game for extended period of time
would in a sense weakens their brain to eventually become lopsided. Games teach
us many things but there is an age restriction for a reason and by allowing
children to play in moderation and age appropriate games children should be
more prone to doing better in the long run.
The beneficial qualities by introducing learning games or
interactive puzzle games you can slightly increase a Childs cognitive ability
and develop strong intellect. Said by researchers of Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore, “much like muscles that can be trained with repetitive
actions, repeated use of certain cognitive processes in video games can improve
performance on other tasks as well.” By playing simple math games that make you
solve simple math equation in order to progress further in to the game will
allow you to develop the ability to solve equations faster. A game like Sudoku
where you have different boxes and rows where you input numbers 1-9 may be hard
at first but solving one puzzle after another will help you generate a strong
cognitive thought process. John M. Grohol, an expert in mental health online
says,
Professionals
who grew up playing video games actually make better business people. They’re
more serious about achievement; more attached to the company they work for and
the people they work with; more flexible, persistent problem-solvers; more
willing to take only the risks that make sense. In short, they’re pretty good
executives right out of the gate.
Through gaming such small
things like gaining achievements or big things like accomplishing a really hard
task can later lead to a better worker in general. Online games and games that
make you work together with another person will help to create and build better
team work skill for when working alongside others. In personal experience
playing games all my life I have inherited the knack of completing tasks and
getting the feeling of accomplishing these said tasks and by playing online
games I have also gained the ability to work well with others and throw in my
two cents, “so to speak.” Through hard ships and repetitive loss in games I
learned that there is no harm in not getting an achievement right away but to
work harder and try again and in a sense be better than when you tried the
first time, “Practice makes perfect.”
Raise smart kid, website on covering video games, citing
cognitive neuroscientist Daphne Bavelier, who studies the effect of action
games at Switzerland’s University of Geneva and the University of Rochester in
New York, suggests
Video
games can improve your kid’s decision making speed. People who played
action-based video and computer games made decisions 25% faster than others
without sacrificing accuracy, according to a study from the University of
Rochester. Other studies suggests that most expert gamers can make choices and
act on them up to six times a second—four times faster than most people, and
can pay attention to more than six things at once without getting confused,
compared to only four by the average person. Surprisingly, the violent action
games that often worry parents most had the strongest beneficial effect on the
brain.
Even though violent games
may be the target of many debates and conflicts studies have shown that with
some aspects of these violent games proved to be the most useful and by playing
games within moderation a person can better adapt to the needs of other parts
of the brain.
Video games should
be used in school to not only enhance a student’s brain but to further develop
them and help them through their path and career in life. Parents may let their
children play games but only in moderation so a child’s brain will not be
lopsided. The question I asked in the early part of this paper, “are video
games harmful and are video games in education worth investing in?” That answer
is still debatable and will vary from person to person. Video games have always
been looked down upon as vulgar and a waste of time but in this paper I have
quoted experts in mental health and brain development that says otherwise. My
personal answer to this question is, video games can indeed be harmful if used
way too much, but that’s with anything in this world. (Too much candy gives a
person belly ache.) Games in education is a wonderful idea in my opinion due to
the beneficial qualities it can bring to a child. If you want to play games for
fun I recommend it. It could be a small game like, “Bejeweled” or “Sudoku” each
has its own way of helping your brain develop and keep in shape.
Works Cited page:
Clark, Niels, P. Shavaun Scott. Game Addiction The experience and the effects. Mcfarland,
Shutterstock, 2009. Print
“The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games.” Raisesmartkid.com. Raise Smart Kid.
2015. Web. Dec 1, 2015
Wood, Janice. “Video
Games Can Enhance Certain Cognitive Skills.” Psychology & Mental Health
News. PsychCentral, 16 Mar 2013. Web. Dec 1, 2015
