Students Respond To 'Video Games Are The Silver Bullet'
Back in August 2008, we published an article by the venerable Duncan Fyfe titled Opinion: Video Games Are The Silver Bullet, which discussed the educational potential of games. The piece called on developers to produce titles that spur players into investigating topics outside of the games like objectivism (BioShock) or G.K. Chesterton (Deus Ex).
An English instructor at Goldsboro High in Goldsboro, NC came across the article and must have found merit in Fyfe's words, as he asked his students to read the essay and comment on whether they believe video games have a positive or negative effect on educating children.
I picked out a few replies that summarize the different arguments the students presented, and have pasted them below (with typos corrected). Cameron seemed to concur with the author's conclusions about the potential for video games to reach students who aren't interested in learning about subjects through traditional education methods:
"In agreement with Duncan Fyfe, I believe some video games are beneficial to a child's education. Approximately twenty million American children have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This disorder makes learning more difficult for children in school. Educational video games offer an alternative hands-on learning method.Technology has made a significant impact on the way children and teenagers acquire academic knowledge. Although video games are a valid method of teaching, they should not take the place of reading a book, writing a paper, ect. An excess of playing video games may cause a student to percieve normal learning habits such as studying, reading and writing as boring and monotonous."
Jacob, however, believes video games can be harmful and distract kids from "the real important things":
"Some of the games influence some children to do what they see, in a bad way. The negatives of video games cause problems in their life away from those games. Video games take time from the real important things you could be doing. The children become couch potatoes and become less aware of important things than games."
And Brittany admits that video games can have both positive and negative effects when it comes to teaching teenagers:
"I agree, there is a positive and a negative way to look at video games. A positive outlook on video games is that certain types such as The Medal of Honor can allow teenagers to learn about history while being entertained. Video games can also have an advantege of interacting with people from all over the world.The negative outlook is if a kid goes to school and is unable to focus on their school work because they are too involved in a video game. If a kid chooses to play video games for hours and hours rather then spending time with family or helping in their community then chances are they will have trouble later on in life."
You can read more of their replies in the comments section of Fyfe's article and on the class's blog.
