Getting children away from the TV or computer screen is harder today than ever before. It seems every device out there is becoming one with a screen that can access the web and game content. Get them away from their PS3, and their on the iPad. A vicious circle indeed; especially when there is homework to be done.
But for mother of two, Penelope Trunk, video games are a key aspect of her two boys education. Two Years ago, Mrs Trunk pulled her sons, 7 and 9 out of state education in favour of home education. Only her ethos on how to educate her children is quite revolutionary; the boys are allowed to play video games as much as they want.
‘I let my kids do whatever they want so they learn how to figure out what they want to do,’ she told the UK Metro.
But Penelope’s boys have to complete all their chores before playing games.
‘They choose to play video games all day. So they don’t learn math, they don’t learn reading, they don’t learn anything. They just do what they want to do and what they want to do right now is video games. I spend a lot of time making sure that I can stomach that… The most important thing we need to learn in order to be human is to know what we like and what’s fulfilling for us. To me, that’s the number one thing you have to teach kids.
Penelope Trunk, Blogger, Career Coach and Mother of Two
In her blog, Penelope discusses her decision and points to research on the positive effects of game mechanics in helping her sons to learn. Whilst many studies conclude that it is detrimental for children to spend hours and hours in front of the T.V., she points out that these results are specifically about passive viewing and that gaming shows largely positive effects and high engagement.
Penelope writes about the core difference is passive vs. active engagement. “When a kid is zoned out in front of a TV, there is no problem-solving or strategizing. That’s not true for a video game. A kid who is completely absorbed in a video game and can’t hear a word his mom says is actually exhibiting the behaviour psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi call flow —which is the highest form of learning because it’s such engaged attention toward mastery of a skill that you don’t notice anything around you.”
Whether Mrs Trunk’s children benefit in the long run from her school of thought remains to be seen – but she is not alone in believing that game mechanics can and do have a hugely positive effect on learning.
Today, there are many people within education who believe that the gamers of today are better prepared for the working environment than ever before because of their gaming-education. In a world in which most jobs rely on data management and quick-decision making – gamers are finding the skills learnt on their consoles easily transferable.
So what does this mean for gaming within education? The British Government only last week gave details of their plans to push more emphasis on traditional english, maths, but also computer programming for the very young. Perhaps now is an excellent time for teachers to look at how game mechanics can encourage a higher level of engagement from pupils. Perhaps when education appears to be taking a more ‘traditional’ path, implementation can come in the form of something new and revolutionary.
And, what does this mean for research? With more and more children becoming tech savvy and rumoured talks taking place on introducing ‘How to Use the Internet’ lessons for kids at school, the next generation of research participants and researchers will feel all the more alienated from the many already dated research methods the market research industry uses today. As a result they will push harder for change, and change is already happening.
