I think there are both positive and negative aspects to identity play in video games. Through "identity play' students have the opportunity to develop characters in their own image and make decisions and judgements based upon their existing morals and values. Students learn problem solving skills working both individually and in cooperative settings.
Students playing video games are willing to be challenged with a range of difficulty levels, continually seeking strategies to improve their performance and not quitting even after failed attempts. Gee reminds us that mastering a video games requires committment in terms of time, effort, and active engagement, as does learning new content in an academic setting. True mastery is achieved through much practice. Many students are willing to put in hours and hours of practice time to master a video game. Many of these same students may resist learning in school. Gee attributes this to the fact that video games are compelling and school is not. This reinforces the fact that students must be motivated by us (their teachers) to want to achieve success both in and out of school. We ultimately want them to attack their schoolwork with the same level of enthusiasm and persistence that they do their video games.
Video games are harmful when used to demoralize or teach hatred for certain groups of people. It's great if identity play affords you the opportunity to see things from another's perspective, but many misconceptions or racist views are compounded either intentionally or unintentionally through the design of many popular games.
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Lance
Before his first haircut.
2 comments:
Yes,video games can offer a lot but I don't think that most of the children in the urban setting will take the motivation they might get from a video game and use it to be a boost to their education. I am very worried about negative images that can be found in many games because it seems the children always find the harmful things first if it's left out there without any safeguards.
“Believing is seeing.” If you look hard enough or believe enough it will be true…if only for yourself and yourself alone. People tend to look for trouble where there is none often times. However, I agree with you that there is great power that comes with games that unite and move masses (adolescents)….with that comes great responsibility. There are games that have an agenda and those that do not. However, if someone wants to deliberately misconstrue and distort something for their own agenda, no amount of reasoning and censorship will keep the wolves at bay. Just look at history for examples of unjust accusations and condemnations. Basically, perception is relative.
The Simpsons is brilliant or moronic depending on whom you ask.
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