Reference no: EM133321373

World of Skillcraft: The Unexpected Benefits of Gaming.

Karen Castellucci Cox

(1) Using games to enhance learning is not a new idea. Preschool teachers use such strategies whenever children play games like "I Spy" to learn colours or "Simon Says" to practice motor control. In addition, the rise of digital technology has included some video games for educators. One of the earliest offerings, Oregon Trail, helped students imagine what it would have been like to outfit a covered wagon in the 1800s and creep across the Rockies during a brutal winter. Newer digital tools help students learn math facts, practice grammar, or memorize the periodic table. But these aren't the games that students rush to play when they get home from school. And they aren't the games parents complain about when they can't pry Jared or Jayla away from the screen for a family dinner.

(2) The commercial video game industry has been built around games that look very different from the educational games young people might play at school. With motion-picture quality graphics and sound, parents and teachers often dismiss the best-selling games as empty entertainment or needlessly violent and sexualized at worst. However, a small but growing field of research suggests that playing certain video games can teach valuable skills, knowledge, or behaviours. These skills can be divided into four types: physical, social/emotional, intellectual, and creative.

(3) The first category, physical skills, is vital for children as they acquire balance and bodily coordination through active play, such as jumping rope or shooting baskets.

The n the surface, playing video games seems the opposite of such physical activity. Yet the newest generation of video games includes body sensor devices that allow players to swing a virtual golf club, balance on an imaginary snowboard, or boogie to a popular tune. And the benefits of getting up and moving are not limited to be-bopping children. Studies of the elderly and those with degenerative diseases which play Dance Dance Revolution show genuine mobility, balance, and muscle strength increases. Other research has shown that surgeons who played commercial games, natural "first-person shooter" games, made fewer operating room errors. In one study that followed surgeons at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, doctors who had played video games at some point in their lives made 37 percent fewer errors than their non-playing counterparts. A similar study at primarily the university of Rome used games on the Nintendo Wii to improve the accuracy of laparoscopic surgeons. So gaming can measurably increase physical skills such as eye-hand coordination and accuracy.

(4) The second type of skills fostered by some video games includes social and emotional abilities vital to the development of successful adults. Social games that encourage team activities build social aptitude and emotional maturity. League of Legends, for example, is a multiplayer online game in which players join teams to navigate a fantasy world, defying dragons and monsters while competing in arena battles. Successful League of Legends gamers exhibits positive behaviours online that make them attractive team members. The game developers have introduced a code that rewards players who "provide constructive feedback, build relationships, and help new players." The most popular multiplayer game, World of Warcraft, encourages similar teamwork skills but adds intricate rules for developing one's avatar-an online character to represent oneself. Avatars such as a mage, warrior, or priest let players try on new selves that possess personal strengths they already have or ones they wish to embody. When team battle games become heated, behaviour games frequentlyhealthilyractice skills to stay calm under intense pressure, compete healthily and manage disappointment when defeated. Far from being socially isolating, multiplayer games encourage the emotional growth that will help these gamers thrive as adults in their social and work lives.

(5) Intellectual skills are the third type and the ones most often measured in schools. This constellation of skills includes thinking critically, solving problems, and analyzing experiences. Intriguingly, action-adventure games challenge players in these same areas. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild immerses gamers in a fantastical kingdom whose secrets must be unlocked as the player's avatar walks, climbs, or paraglides through lush scenery. Even the same fundamental challenges, like staving off hunger, require trial and error as the player discovers edible plants and learns to make elixirs for strength. Action-adventure games like Zelda foster persistence, a quality linked to success, since problems become easier to solve as the gamer uncovers hidden clues. Likewise, problem-solving is reinforced positively because the stakes are low. If their avatar fails, the gamer Legoboots back up and tries again. Developing a penchant for solving puzzles gives gamers an edge later in life when they solve on-the-job problems with complex solutions or must critically assess information and its sources.

6 Finally, certain video games promote creativity, considered by some to be the highest form of human expression. Creative learners tend to seek outlets for their imaginative expression, which may explain why Minecraft is the most popular game in the world. At its most basic, Minecraft is an online building game, a kind of digital Lego. But like action-adventure games, it requires players to uncover secrets and solve problems to survive. Gamers may play individually or team up by the dozens in wiki-like collaborations to create intricate cathedrals, desert temples, and whole villages. In a rare crossover from commercial play to the classroom, some teachers are developing courses around Minecraft in which students replicate famous structures like the Roman Colosseum or re-create stage performances of Shakespeare.

7 Parents and gamers alike should embrace the discovery that some commercial video games offer concrete skill-building in the four major learning areas. The present ESRB rating system for video games shows only the level of violence and sexual content in a game-helpful to parents but sadly incomplete. Why not rate each game for educational value as well? Such a move would be welcomed by parents and teachers and perhaps promote more crossover. Shifting the focus to types of skills promoted by a game would also give parents peace of mind that time spent gaming is not necessarily

wasted but may even help young people acquire skills valuable for school and life.

Please read the essay and answer the questions.

As soon as possible. Thanks!

Extended Paragraph Outline (for 10 - 12 sentences):

Provide a complete topic sentence and concluding sentence. Everything else should be supplied in point form.

Choose one of the topics below related to the essay "World of Skillcraft: The Unexpected Benefits of Gaming." to base your paragraph outline on. Remember that you can use ideas from the article and your own ideas for your paragraph outline.

Topic 1: Can playing video games teach people valuable skills, knowledge, and behaviours? Provide (three) details from the reading and your relevant ideas to support your topic sentence.

Topic 2: Can teachers use video games to enhance student learning? Provide (three) details from the reading and your relevant ideas to support your topic sentence.

Topic 3: Can playing video games make people more creative? Provide (three) details from the reading and your own relevant ideas to support your topic sentence.