By Matthew O’Hara

Question:

The Future – How Will

Video Games & Media In

Education Affect My

Children?

Adult’s View:

Most adult’s have a negative view on the

influence that video games have on their

children.

Reasons for this could be ignorance,

pre-conceived view from others and

inexperience.

The internet itself has been perceived as

negative due to safety and privacy

issues.

An example of this:

Alan Titchmarsh TV Show debate

www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesb

log/2010/mar/23/alan-titchmarsh-show-

games

Generational Divide

The Generational divide is the biggest

reason for such different attitudes

towards media as a whole especially

video games in my opinion.

Internet Generation

The internet generation is a term which describes the current generation. The current generation are called this because they have grown up with the internet and have no fear of it as they have used it from a very young age.

The figures show the popularity of these video games amongst the young people of today –This year video games overtook music and video combined in the UK. Industries respective share of this is forecast to be £4.64 billion and £4.46 billion.

www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/john-lanchester/is-/it-art

Video Games Effects The effects people associate with video

games and worry about are listed below:

- Obesity

- Violent Nature

- Loss Of Intelligence?

- Addiction

The above worries to me show a lack of understanding of video games or an overprotective feeling towards their children.

Media In Education

Media can be a very useful tool in

today’s education.

Websites like Google and Ask give

students an advantage as they can now

search and access more information

and resources than was ever before

possible.

Media As An Educational

Advantage With media such as the internet and

traditional books students can explore and learn more than ever.

Not only search engines such as Google but interactive tools can give the student a different way to learn their subjects rather than just the traditional student teacher relationship.

Even primary schools use educational websites as a visual stimulus for the pupils to learn vital early lessons such as the alphabet and the timetables.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds can also be used in

education.

Second Life for example has been used

in University, giving an alternative to

seminars by having online lectures

where the students simply have to log

on rather than sit in an auditorium.

Advantages

Advantages of these Second Life

lectures:

- Can attend the lectures without being at

university.

- New environments

- New ways to learn

Gilly Salman:

‘It’s natural in society that if you put a

professor in front of a group of students

you will always get a degree of reticence,

whereas if like the professor is an Avatar,

it’s simply not the same’

www.guardian.co.uk/digitalstudent/second-life

Disadvantages

Disadvantages of these Second Life

lectures:

- Communication is more awkward.

- Hard to ask if confused or not sure.

- May miss lecture due to computer fault

or technology difficulty.

In Conclusion In conclusion I believe that media in

education will be very effective and helpful in the future as it will enable students to learn interactively as well as traditionally. Video games have always been popular for children and also have worried parents. I believe as this generation has kids the negative stigma attached to video games will disappear meaning there will be less worry of alleged video games effects in the future due to the adults own knowledge and experience of video games.

References

Adams, E (2009) Fundamentals of Game Design. 2nd Edn. Berkeley: Peachpit Press.

Herring, S (2008) 'Questioning the Generational Divide: Technological Exoticism and Adult Constructions of Online Youth Identity', in Atkins, B & Krzywinska, T (eds.) Videogame, Player, Text. Manchester: MUP.

Bruns, A (2008) Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond. London: Peter Lang.

www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/mar/23/alan-titchmarsh-show-games

www.guardian.co.uk/digitalstudent/second-life

www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/john-lanchester/is-/it-art

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8453043.stm

www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0816/is_6_21/ai_n9772319/

Thank You

Thank You for listening to my

presentation and I hope you enjoyed it.