Video Games

The Video games are electronic games. Some people believe that these games engage the players and can be effective in learning. Recently, these edutainment software’s professionals have started to work to implement it at schools. Most research and studies that were done in this field shows that the players develop certain skills to monitor multiple locations simultaneously. Players may also develop other skills such as; critical thinking, problem solving and creativity through different tasks. Moreover, action games significantly increase the players’ speed of processing. As a result, the younger generations who play these games may have shorter attention span. They are also less patient than the older adults. Personally, I do not agree with some professors when they refer to the digital generations as smarter generations. These games may provoke collaborative work but still it is not the only tool that creates this kind of learning atmosphere. As an ESL/EFL teacher, I want to adapt any digital tool that engages the learners in a life-long learning process and makes the learning more interesting and meaningful for them. These video games can be interesting, if it is based on school subjects such as; languages, history, geography, science or mathematics. However, I think it should not be the only learning source; it may be used in computer classes as a supplementary tool. For example, playing the Friv games, http://www.friv.com/, may teach some vocabulary, problem solving, or time and money management skills. On the contrary, some other video games may be dangerous, because they can be used to codify the players’ brains with specific ideas. For example, kids who play Pokémon games can imitate the Pokémon which may be very dangerous for them. On the other hand, those who played the Counter Strike games very often, they may find the killing and the crime something legal and easy to commit. Enjoying the real life and learning through real experiments may be more enjoyable. Young generations should not be deprived from their human rights to live and experience the real life with all its details. Video games can be used in teaching-learning process as tool to reinforce certain academic information but not as essential tool. Finally, I totally agree that the learners should be producers rather than only being consumers. But their production should be supervised and monitored by adults.