Title of the Article: Will “Call of Duty” Be Assigned for 10th Grade (Gaming) Homework?
Source: Scientific American.Website URL: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/2013/03/06/will-call-of-duty-be-assigned-for-10th-grade-gaming-homework/
Where to begin? It is beyond obvious as to why I chose this article, however here is a clarification: just from the title having “gaming homework” already sounds appealing to a 16 year old boy. Having a ‘gaming’ class is the perfect class for many boys of my age and interests, and it would be something that many teens such as myself would enforce. That would not be a class, but more of a break. Before reading this article I was aware of the fact that ‘gaming’ improves your hand-eye coordination, thinking process, and on top of that it contributes to your decision making (by coming up with a decision in a shorter period of time compared to not playing video games, as well as having the ability to weight the two situations and choose the one that is of a greater significance/benefit to you).
The article focused a lot on the studies done by Professor Wilingham of the University of Wisconsin. He has said that playing ‘call of duty’ (a game full of shooting, quick decisions, etc) increases memory, reflexes, alertness and so on forth. All of these qualities are essential to every human being and that is why I support his research. By improving these qualities we become more aware of our surrounding which benefit us in many ways, improved reflexes are essential for staying safe in your environment, while coming up with a good decision (problem solving) in a short period of time saves you a lot of time and energy. Not to mention memory…
“What we really want to do is target a cognitive process [say, attention or memory] and then design a game that packages practice of that process into a gaming experience. That effort has been ongoing for 20 years or so in the education world and game designers have found it much more difficult than anyone thought it would be.” As told by Dr. Wilingham. It is understandable that coming up with a perfect game (which develops all the qualities mentioned before) is difficult but it is definitely worth it. Just because these qualities are found in games, many kids will spend a large quantity of their time playing them which would lead up to extra points in the performance of the qualities. In conclusion, adding video games (which work on the qualities such as reflexes, memory, etc) to the school curriculum will definitely benefit those qualities since a surplus of time will be invested into them.
By Mihajlo :)
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting...I'm not so sure that the Call of Duty should necessarily be in the classroom, but I do believe that video games are great for all those things you mentioned. Here is another article that I thought was interesting: http://www.dogonews.com/2013/1/19/minecraft-as-a-mandatory-subject-in-school-sweet
ReplyDeleteAs much as I would rather play games in class (even the shooting zombies kind) over doing work, I think the disadvantages greatly outweigh the advantages. There are many other things an individual can do to improve their memory and other cognitive skills. The chances of the person getting addicted are much bigger.. yes, i think you can get addicted to video games, social networks such as facebook etc. If we begin procrastinating like that at school, what can we expect to do at home?
ReplyDeleteFrankly, i think this article is just an excuse to play games in class.