Beating Video Game Baddies Moves Minds Up a Level

8/12/2019 Beating Video Game Baddies Moves Minds Up a Level

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Beating video game baddies moves minds up a l

evel

Use your superpower now, or save it for battling the boss later?

Spend your hard-earned points on this special item, or buy a dierentone instead?

From the moment you start playing a video game, you face choices. And those choices, some eperts say, often lead to educational eperiences ! sometimes even more enriching than what students get from sit

ting in traditional classrooms.

"#hat$s not %ust because they want to have fun," said &ndiana University researcher Sean 'uncan. "#hat$s also because (games) are meaningful, comple and tough decision-ma*ing spaces. #hey$re learning whenthey play these games."


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&ndiana University is marching at the front of a national movement topromote video games in education. And, as 'uncan$s wor* in the university$s +enter for esearch on earning and #echnology highlights, it$s not %ust the made-for-learning math or spelling games that boost cognitive s*ills.

&t can also be the popular video games that millions of children ! andadults, too ! remain glued to for hours on end S*yrim, /inecraft and,yes, maybe even 0rand #heft Auto.

1ait. 2ut aren$t video games %ust brain-melting evil sludge that corrupt our youth?

3ardly, 'uncan says. (1ell, sometimes. 2ut we$ll get to that later.)

"#hese open-world environments allow the learner to choose what they want to do," 'uncan said. "#hese are things that we don$t do at all inschools. 1e very rarely allow a learner to say, $45, you want to go oand do this? 6ou 7gure out what you need to do and we$ll give you theresources to do it.$

"8o, it$s $Stay in the chair. Stay still. And we$ll tell you what to learn.$"

3e calls it "playful learning."

/a*ing most of video games

&U has also %oined the budding 3igher 9ducation :ideo 0ame Alliance,where 'uncan helps hype video games for their myriad potentials Forinstructional purposes, to increase tech literacy, as an art form and a culture, and to create high-tech %ob opportunities.


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&U also plans to roll out a new game design ma%or in fall ;.

ast year, a study by the American sychological Association found that rather than ma*ing children "intellectually la@y," video games foster

ed problem-solving s*ills and creativity. First-person shooter games developed spatial navigation. osing at games made children more resilient.

+hildren often use video games, &U$s 'uncan says, as a playground. #hey ma*e "virtual mud pies."

#a*e the wildly popular /inecraft. #he game plops the player into an

open virtual world, 'uncan says "1hat you do is you combine things,eplore, create, build. 2ut the game doesn$t tell you how to do that. #he social community around the game tells you how to do that."

#hey can ! and have ! even recreated the city of &ndianapolis.

4ne of the minds behind building /onument +ircle in /inecraft during last year$s op+on #hen-=-year-old B# 0raham of 2rownsburg.

3is dad, Bohn, worries a little bit about how much time the teenager spends wrapped around the computer, and he tries to *eep B# away from the really violent video games.

2ut B# awed his dad with what he created 3e sna*ed a labyrinth of caves and put a blimp in the /inecraft s*y.

3e has invented his own @ombie video game. 3e has built game levelson virtual moons with other players from places li*e ortugal. 3e haswatched 6ou#ube videos until he can solve a ubi*$s +ube.

"#hat was one of those parenting moments where & was li*e, 1ow. /y


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*id is active and wants to learn something," Bohn 0raham, =, said.

+oncerns about violence

Still, video games have endured signi7cant bac*lash from parents concerned about the hours children spend @oned out in front of games and the eposure to %arring violence, hyperseuali@ation and other typesof mature content included in many popular games these days.

Fran*ly, &U$s 'uncan shares those same worries. 3e$s bothered by thethemes in games such as 0rand #heft Auto. 2ut at the same time, he sees problems with polari@ed conversations around video games.

"1e want to thin* games are one thing or another," he said. "0ames are going to save the world, on one hand, or games are going to turn usinto *illing machines."

&mplicit in the national video game alliance$s mission, 'uncan said, is improving perceptions and understandings of games.

Studies on the eects of video games on young minds span the gamut.

A recent one from the University at 2ualo found players feel guilty when they commit immoral acts in games. 4n the other hand, researchat &owa State University has connected violent video games with ma*ing children more aggressive and less caring.

4ut of the &U School of /edicine, a study a few years ago pointed to violent video games causing changes in brain activity that could eventually aect players$ behaviors.

#he arents #elevision +ouncil, an advocacy group headCuartered in os Angeles, opposes games that epose children to se, violence and p


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rofanity ! particularly those li*e 0rand #heft Auto that are rated /, recommended for mature audiences ages =D and up.

"1hat the games are doing is putting the child in the shoes of a horrib

ly violent person," said /elissa 3enson, director of grassroots activism and education.

She added "#here are video games out there that can be very instructive that can really encourage children with their creativity, their imagination. 2ut & thin* & would want to steer *ids away from the /-rated games and more in the direction of something li*e a /inecraft."

3enson also noted she would encourage parents to be careful about how much time their children spend in front of television or computer screens.

#a*ing the broad view

2ut parent Anna ynch said she sees a bigger picture when her two daughters, =; and = years old, play video games.

"#hey have understood that you$re %ust trying things on, and you$re understanding dierent perspectives in the world," said ynch, of 2loomington. "6ou don$t always have to only wear that out7t. 6ou get to try other things on, and that$s 45. #hat doesn$t mean you become thatperson.

"earning to play is 45. #hat$s a really valuable thing. & thin* ta*ing y

ourself too seriously all the time is probably more of a danger than playing."

3er daughters are going to &U$s 0ame 'evelopment +amp, where lastwee* students designed games where %umping over spi*es changed day into night, marshmallows faced o against evil-doers and late-night


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#: host +onan 4$2rien hunted for coo*ies to eat.

+amper 9van 1ilt, =D, of /artinsville, says he learns from subtle messages in video games. 8ot everyone notices them, he said ! "but & fee

l li*e if you do see it, it$s a very important part to the video game itself."

&n his favorite game, /etal 0ear Solid, "the main theme of the story isbeing yourself and trying not to be told that you are supposed to do this one thing," 9van said. "2ut instead, follow what you want to do( httpsEEtwitter.comE6+2445 ) plur* (httpEEwww.plur*.comEsearch*eywords ) lin*edincn.lin*edin.comEpubE-EDE=

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Beating Video Game Baddies Moves Minds Up a Level