Aleks Krotoski, Computer games appear to be encouraging solitary, silent and emotionless environments for children. Is this likely to have an impact as these children mature and is 'the way to go' consuls like the wii that encourage interaction and communication?
Asked by yvonnef on Nov 15 2007 10:30:53 AM and supported by 33 members
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Ii'm actually just writing an article about this for New Statesman. Perfect timing!Games have traditionally been perceived to be"solitary" probably by the nature of games that have come before, but increasingly, as a response to the needs of an ever-diversifying audience, game developers recognise the need to make them more social.The best example of this has been multiplayer options in front of a console but now, if you take a look at the PS3 games and Xbox360 games, all of the releases have an online component to assure that there's some opportunity to interact with - gasp - real human beings! Does this have other risks for children though? As far as risks for kids, most schools in the UK are actively promoting digital literacy as part of their curriculum learning objectives, so if kids can learn to interact with one another in an environment which they enjoy in which they're being social, then it fulfills what the UK government hopes for kids' education and development kids develop an understanding of the norms of interacting online through multiplayer games they develop an understanding for potential threats and they learn how to deal with them in situ, which is a much better way to learn - according to most of the education research - than by learning the theory behind X, Y and Z.