I found out some very interesting facts during my research that you all might find interesting. Mostly all of these are from studies conducted by multiple people. "investigators have reported that playing certain action video games results in a significant improvement in 'visual contrast sensitivity,' a measure of how well an individual is able to discern low-contrast targets." (Scientific American) A company called "Posit" made a brain game for people to increase the function of their brain. "A study published in 2009, for instance, showed that 242 healthy participants aged 65 years and older improved on measures of memory and attention after 40 hours of training more than a control group did." (study was conducted by researchers from Posit, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Southern California and other academic institutions.) And for people who think video games induce violent behaviors: "The researchers were interested in whether or not participants would intervene and help the experimenter who was being harassed. The effects were pretty striking. Ten out of the 18 participants who had been playing the prosocial game intervened to help the experimenter. However, only 4 out of the 18 participants who had been playing the neutral game intervened" (Discussing how video games can, in fact, be prosocial. The control group was playing super easy mode tetris.) Video games now used for education: "One successful example of a "multi-user virtual environment" in use in the classroom is River City, a game funded by the National Science Foundation and developed by programmers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Targeted at students in grades six through nine, River City looks a bit like Second Life and portrays how three diseases simultaneously affect health in a fictitious city. As students explore the ailments, they learn how disease is spread and the impact of human interactions far and wide." (Scientific American) "Mayo acknowledges that, on the surface, the idea of using video games as an educational tool may seem "laughable," but she points to studies that show video games can yield a 7 to 40 percent improvement in learning over a lecture program. River City, for example, significantly improved the scores of poorly performing students (they earned Bs instead of Ds). " (Scientific American)
So if you make Learning fun "a game" kids will love to play and learn new things because their are having fun! Stiking, who would imagine that! the reflex and brain activity could be done by any number of activities, playing specific "games" is as valid as any other way. its just me or this is common sence?
Consider that his paper would seem to be persuading people who either are or follow the advice of the mass media, politicians, or "concerned" moms who all speak out against the latest and greatest evil they can find with entertainment. Common sense does not apply. edit: also, when I wrote an article similarly many many moons ago I dug up something about the effect video games can have on psychological issues for the better. Making the people either deal with life easier or become slightly more interactive.
Sadly, people still don't understand this. They much rather give lectures and speeches that put people to sleep.
Not to mention they have the boring lecture approach reinforced when people still ace the class because of natural talent/studying or the students don't want to take the class with them again >.<
I guess, more or less the point of this research paper is just to remove those negative stigmas related to video games.
reminds me of an optional test they gave my calculus class, all it consisted of was shapes formed from blocks twisted into different 3D views and we had to determine which 2 where the same as the original given. The teacher said that the human brains ability to grasp a 3D image and turn it in their minds is connected to their ability to learn certain subjects. Later going on to saying that a study had been done that concluded video games can increase a persons ability to do such 3d modeling in their minds.
Imagine how much they'd learn if they played real life games instead? Videogames may improve hand-eye coordination, but actually throwing things improves it way way more.