Google just released the “Fastest Rising Search Terms” for 2007 and guess what? Children’s video games occupied two of the top 10. Webkinz and Club Penguin were the second and sixth fastest rising search terms on Google in 2007. I’ve played both of these games with my daughters, and found them to be safe, positive learning environments for them. And best of all, they are truly “fun” games.
Hmm…. I wonder if Video Games are becoming mainstream!?
What are the memories of childhood that keep coming back to you? Oftentimes, they are of the first movie we saw. Movies are profound (and often intense) experiences for first-timers. Think back to your first visit to a cinema: whether it was a public screening or a private viewing at home, when the lights went out and the movie came up, you were alone in your own experience. This great gift of cinema helps create those memories that are so clearly affixed in our minds.
Now do you think that memory from your childhood, that cornerstone in the foundation of your life, influenced who you are today? If you’re were a kid in America in the 70s who turned on the Afterschool Specials on Wednesdays at 3:30pm when they were playing foreign films, chances are that is why you are tuning into KidConfidence and this blog today. And look at how similar things around us are to the 70s.
Cinema has always played a large part in the memory of our American society. Those 70s kids’ parents spent entire afternoons in the cinema for a nickel watching Betty Grable, Clark Gable and the stars of the 40s and 50s. Their parents remember the advent of the “Talkie.” No doubt, vivid memories of cinema days were passed on. But with so much media at our fingertips today, parents have to make more careful choices about providing the opportunities for those memories. What is the exposure that is going to make the lasting impression and perhaps plant seeds that continue to inspire your child as her or she progresses to adulthood?
Following up on last year’s groundbreaking finding that 35 percent of American parents play computer and video games, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today released a new survey of “gamer moms and dads” in time for Mother’s Day, showing that over a third of gamer moms (39 percent) play games by themselves at least once a week, and 37 percent report playing computer and video games with their children at least once a week. Gamer moms also play video games with their spouses; in fact, among couples who both play computer and video games, 59 percent report playing together.
“While gamer moms clearly enjoy playing games with their kids, they’re not just ‘kidding around’ – they also enjoy playing alone and with their spouses,” said Carolyn Rauch, senior vice president of the ESA, the trade association that represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “In fact, a majority of gamer moms (54 percent) say they will play video games as much or more often once their children move out of the house. These women may be married with children, but there’s no doubt that they’re here to play.”
In Thomas and Cola’s continued coverage of the GDC in San Francisco, their second interview is with Jessica Hammer, Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University. Ms. Hammer’s presentation today was titled Serious Games: A Preparation for Future Learning Approach.
Thomas and Cola caught up with Jessica after her presentation for this interview where they asked for her views on video games as a learning tool for children. I’ve included some excerpts of the interview below, but be sure to listen to podcast: Interview with Jessica Hammer for the full interview (8:23).
Ms. Hammer has worked as a game designer and social software consultant. She saw the potential of video games as a learning tool right away while working on Zoo Media Rescue: an adventure game that teaches kids basic math skills (ed: sorry, I can’t find a link to the game.) Jessica says that games have an underlying structure; a set of rules, ideas and objects that have complex relationships to each other and can model some things from real life.
But game play doesn’t have to be educational in terms of modeling. She observes that the way passionate game players engage with games can be very powerful. They do research, talk with friends, and in some cases bring the scientific method to life in a way that most kids don’t do in other aspects of life. Part of the reason is that in the real world, the stakes for failure are very high. In video games, it is ok to try things over and over until you get it right. People who are engaged in games not only learn what the game itself teaches, but they also learn a lot by the way they engage with the game.
I’ve seen this in my own experience with my 7 year old daughter, Abby. We’ve been playing a game called Viva Pinata on the XBox 360. In this game you are put in charge of building and cultivating a garden as conditions change. As you plant certain seeds and things grow, they attract different types of cute Pinata creatures who may become “residents” of your garden and make it their home. Well, you also attract some not-so-nice creatures to the garden, including one fellow named “Dastardos” who can mess up your garden and make things difficult for you.
We set limits on how much time she can spend playing video games, and in between the times she actually gets to play, she is constantly thinking about new strategies and ideas for her next session. She asks me things like “How can we get rid of Dastardos?” “What kind of seeds do we need to plant to attract a Sparrowmint?” We even did some research on the web together to find out that we could create a jack-o-lantern out of a pumpkin to tame a Sherbat, to hold off Dastardos. It was a fun way to do some “problem solving” and “research” together, and it never felt like work to either of us!
Indeed, as Ms. Hammer said in the interview, “Video games can provide experiences just as rich socially and intellectually as other types of activities.”
Thanks for your time and insights Jessica!
Here is a very interesting podcast from Gamasutra - it is a recording of the panel called “Do Videogames Help Kids Learn?” from the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s initiative on Digital Learning. The panelists include Sasha Barab, Nichole Pinkard, and David Williamson Shaffer, author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn.
From the GDC site: In the podcast, “Sasha Barab of Indiana University, demos his latest project, Quest Atlantis, which uses an immersive online world to teach environmental impact and science to junior high school students. Nichole Pinkard, Director of Technology at the University of Chicago also shares her experience creating an innovative digital media after school program for Chicago’s Center for Urban School improvement. And David Williamson Shaffer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn, discusses his latest research on games and learning.”
This is well worth listening to if you’ve ever asked the question, are “video games good for my child”?, or if you are curious about the effects of video games on children. As we’ve said before, we believe here at KidConfidence that the right video games can help children learn, and can play a key role in building confidence in children as well.
The podcast is hosted at GDCRadio.net and can be downloaded directly here. There is also a webcast on the
MacArthur Foundation web site called “Do Video Games Help Kids Learn?” that you may be interested in.
Trust us - both of them are worth your time!
Editor’s note: A podcast is really just an .mp3 audio file that you can download and play on any computer, so don’t be afraid to click the link and listen to it!
