The Influence of Video Games on Learning

(“Critical Thinking with Video Games - Critical Thinking with Video Games”)

For a couple of decades, new technologies have meddled surprisingly in the entertainment of children and young people; For this reason, researchers have proposed that this influence can be used in the educational context, achieving positive results.

In this paper, an analysis of the characteristics of video games, their relationship with learning, and the cognitive changes that originate with their use are carried out, as opposed to traditional school training. An example of its application in the educational task is described, analyzing its advantages generally underestimated by the classical conception.

It culminates with some reflections on aspects related to the content of this resource, considered harmful such as the generation of violence, addiction, isolation, and sexism, and its various interpretations. Therefore, its use in the educational process requires a careful selection and the practice of a previously structured process by educators.

Videogames constitute how children and adolescents connect with the world of virtuality and new technologies in our society.

Contrary to the great acceptance and use by children and young people, they are highly criticized for their content and wasted in the educational field. According to this analysis, the set of teaching aids can be considered as one more tool.

Analyzing the context of video games is not an isolated event from which only its characteristics, negative and positive aspects, can be said; it is a complex issue where the intervention of various participants and multiple factors occurs. Children and young people are the axes in analyzing this new entertainment scenario. Still, parents, educational institutions, the government, the media, and other entertainment media are also involved in the matter.

This popular means of entertainment has the characteristics of a playful space and promotes the internalization of specific learning methods in schoolchildren that strongly contrast with the proposals of formal education taught in schools. If educators overlook them, these differences facilitate the constitution of reactive learning problems and inhibitory manifestations of thought.

The fact that the formats have come in multiple varieties has made their commercialization more general for all tastes, circumstances, and economic conditions and has contributed to their wide diffusion among all cultural strata of our society, constituting one of the sources of most important entertainment of recent times, especially for the youngest.

("50 Educational Video Games That Homeschoolers Love")

The initial manifestations of the current video games can be detected in the 40s when American technicians developed the first flight simulator intended for pilot training.

The first video game took place in 1972, called PONG, which consisted of a rudimentary game of tennis or ping-pong. In 1977, the Atari firm launched the first cartridge video game system on the market, which achieved great success in the United States and, at the same time, caused concern about the possible effects of video games on the behavior of children and young people.

The quality of the movement, the color, and the sound, as well as the imagination of the creators of games, were such that, together with the decrease in relative costs of these video games, at the beginning of the 90s, the games created were massively extended. by the two leading companies, Sega and Nintendo, quickly becoming one of the favorite toys for children.

The widespread development of video games in the past decade has led to a new wave of research in various areas of knowledge, including education, in addition to the concern and evaluations that these games have received from parents. , educators, mainly the media, for whom video games are generally seen as harmful. The most recognized scientific organizations and publishing companies have left a space in their research for the influence of video games in different fields.

With the development of computer technology, a new type of game arises, video games; these have their attributes and are different from other types of programs, although a good part of the current educational software tries to copy the designs of the games to increase motivation when using them. However, the differences in video and educational game formats are still notorious. (Arena)

There are quite a few investigations that seem to apply this idea to educational informatics. When talking about video games, it must be borne in mind that the medium has characteristics different from other computer programs, and many forms of content within video games lead us to consider additional aspects.

These proper attributes are based on the fact that they contain symbolic notations such as textual information, sound, music, animation, video, photographs, three-dimensional images, and various notes on a single screen. They are also dynamic, displaying changing process phenomena on the net. The photos produced by the video game can create models of any natural, possible, or imagined wonder. Lastly, they are highly interactive; since it is possible to appropriate and personalize the medium. (Hutchison)

It is these attributes that various investigations have taken to show that many video games favor the development of specific skills, attention, spatial concentration, problem-solving, creativity, etc. Therefore, it is concluded that, as a whole, from the cognitive point of view, video games represent some help in intellectual development.

(TEDx Talks)

Video games are one more element within the current media: TV, the press, books, videos, movies, and the Internet; that provide distraction, fun, often information, and generally specific learning, especially if we have adequate guidance.

Multiple investigations have been carried out in the psycho-pedagogical and social areas, which show that video games develop innumerable psychomotor, creativity, self-esteem, socialization, decision-making, organizational, analytical, and resolution skills. Of problems, all this is in the context of extraordinary motivation.

Usually, its use does not have to be negative, as some not well-founded media tend to consider it. In any case, and referring primarily to the issue related to the addiction of children and adolescents, the family will be responsible for controlling their use and limiting eventual habits and excesses caused by a specific type of material since sometimes they are acquired to supply the company of absent parents.

The responsibility to prevent violence, to take effective action in favor of equal opportunities for men and women, and to prevent social isolation, requires an active and determined role from public institutions to contribute and, in some cases, impose private companies to establish specific regulations.

The aspects that are generally considered harmful do not have to reduce the set of advantages that the use of this medium could yield in educational institutions, such as entering the world of computing, improving attention levels, enhancing reasoning, reflection, and deductive thinking, skill development, etc. which are essential for the integral development of the person. And even content considered harmful could be used by educators for social values analysis.

The fact that videogames are a very motivating material in itself allows covert learning that overcomes resistance to formal education; it is the role of educators to undertake the task of analyzing and selecting this powerful educational tool and applying it as much as possible to counteract the weight of the unfortunate daily life in which the education provided in educational institutions is sometimes anchored.

References

“50 Educational Video Games That Homeschoolers Love.” OEDB.org, 28 Aug. 2012, www.oedb.org/ilibrarian/50-educational-video-games-that-homeschoolers-love/.

Arena, D. (2015). Video Games as Tillers of Soil. Theory Into Practice, 54(2), 94–100. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1080/00405841.2015.1010843

Boyan, A., & Sherry, J. L. (2011). The Challenge in Creating Games for Education: Aligning Mental Models With Game Models. Child Development Perspectives, 5(2), 82–87. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00160.x

“Critical Thinking with Video Games - Critical Thinking with Video Games.” The Mindful Learning Space, themindfullearningspace.com/courses/thinking-skills/critical-thinking-with-video-games-2/. It was accessed on 20 Aug. 2023.

Hutchison, D. (2007). Video Games and the Pedagogy of Place. Social Studies, 98(1), 35–40. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.3200/TSSS.98.1.35-40

Nyitray, K. J. (2019). Game On to Game After Sources for Video Game History. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 59(1), 7–11.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Pearson Education.

TEDx Talks. (2018). The Effective Use of Game-Based Learning in Education | Andre Thomas | TEDxTAMU. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X1m7tf9cRQ

Whelan, D. L. (2005). Let The Games Begin! School Library Journal, 51(4), 40–43.

VICK, K. (2022). How the creator of Wordle feels about selling his addictive game. TIME Magazine, 199(5/6), 12–13.