Gaming, Learning, and Libraries: Why Screen Time Can Be Well-Spent

• Wednesday, April 16, 12:00 - 12:50pm
• speaker: Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor

 

previous sterotype of gamer: 17-year old

now: unemployed 30-something living in his mother's basement

 

clear up misperceptions about gamers and gaming

 

"screentime" as negative: anitsocial

but it's nearly always more fun to game with your friends; those who don't feel that way are antisocial in all other areas of life

 

"information overload" -- that's not what it looks like to gamers

what if their job will be something like this?

Bloomberg's default display

won't it help you better assimilate information in real life?

scientists' displays and interfaces

the more dense the interfaces get, the more challenging it will be to process that information

but games can train you to do that

 

"i never used to do this as a kid!" -- it's not new; used to be called watching "Leave it to Beaver,"

which is more passive and less instructive

this is a step better than zoning out in front of cartoons

keep it in perspective that this is not the first generation to spend a lot of time in front of screens

but "we turned out okay" doesn't cut it in academic circles

but there are more arugments out there that are academic

 

violence?

three of the top games for 2007: super paper mario, pokemon, wii sports

better than the movies any day

some bad ocntent in the format doesn't invalidate the whole thing

a lot less "bad stuff" in video games than there are in books

 

video games vs. literacy

you can't play video games without being a good reader: Pokemon screenshot

"prevents ability reduction"

codes, meaning, and symbols are also a part of literacy

 

first three words his son could read: "select, level, and quit" -- had to read to game

 

videogames are an idle waste of time

you could say that about fishing

but it's a recreational activity that involves activity, cooperation, and social interaction

 

facts:

require advanced literacy; kids are pushed to absorb

(books listed on handout)

overcome achievement gaps (Yug-i-Oh)

only 15% of videogame units sold are rated M; 15% are rated E

(what about the percentage of age--appropriate books sold?)

games build critical workplace and life skills (how to socially acquire information)

are telephones or morse code "not talking to a real person?"

gamers are more successful in the workplace

 

"The Kids are Alright: How Gamers are Changing the Workplace"

John . Beck

Michael Wade

 

in the next generation, there isn't this distinction: all of the kids play some games

so what are they learning from gaming?

• reading comprehension
• memory and knowledge
  • Pokemon: complex statistics and information that third-graders absorb
  • baseball average geeks are the only comparison
• abstract reasoning
  • 17 types of Pokemon; understanding match-ups with different kinds of attacks
  • enormous matrix of attacks
• spatial reasoning
  • maps of levels
  • they are also creating levels and sharing with friends
• hierarchical knowledge systems
  • big deal with how information is organized online
  • kingdom, order, genus, species, etc.
  • Civilization knowledge tree
    • technology of paper depends on having two other things, etc.
  • games can show kids they can have an impact on the world; give them a thirst for knowledge
  • example of kids playing Civilization in at-risk youth after-school program
• research skills
  • how to filter through so many hits and determine what you need
  • a natural way for them to realize how to research
• perseverance
  • in games, you have to do it over and over again, until you get it right
  • difficult skill to teach
  • no repurcussions or fear of failure in game environment
• success takes risks
  • you won't discover what's deadly until it kills you
  • gamers are less risk-averse
  • risk in absence of consequence of failure
• delay gratification
  • average game takes 40 or 50 hours to complete
  • about 100 hours for Pokemon to catch them all
• interface literacy
  • why can a 4-year old find the right thing to click on?
  • they've made sense rapidly of the display
  • something they learn through gaming
  • exposed to constant interface ideas; frees them from fear of new interfaces; not afraid to explore
• 3D manipulation
  • important skill in engineering, architecture, construction, etc.
• take care of your data
  • backups
  • data corruption can happen
  • learn devastating data losses when they are much younger; form good habits
• hacking and ethics
  • can hack Pokemon to have super-abilities
  • juiced Pokemon vs, natural Pokemon
  • forum on this issue; can't ask their parents or teachers this question
  • they ruin fun/competition, and can damage other people's machines/software
  • conversation about digital ethics
• join in the global information community
  • Pokemon wiki in various languages
  • user-created
  • categorizing, writing, editing information online
  • it's not about authoritative sources; it's about finding communities of interest
  • lots of things aren't covered in encyclopedias
• direct job skills
  • studey of gaming vs. non-gaming surgeons (Super Monkey Ball)
  • 37% fewer mistakes, 27% faster
  • manipulating 3D datasets in oil industry--helped if play Madden football games

 

• hidden assets
  • social experience that is positive and sets tone for future interactions
  • Search Institutes; 40 things that communities need to provide...
    • 22 of them provided by gaming tournaments

 

• they are among you
  • average age of gamers are 33
  • 72% of Americans play some video games
  • much wider than popularity of reading
  • a full quarter of them are over 50--more adult women than teenage boys in gaming community

 

2007 media sales

• music, DVDs, videogames, and book sales
• pretty evenly split; is this how our collection development split?

 

what's at stake?

• our image, our brand: boring, quiet
• pervase image
• Jedi librarian in Episode II has a bun, white hair, and a shawl
• what value does this brand have to our communities?
• information system that can be implanted in your body
  • "powered by pizza" -- runs off of glucose in your blood

 

conversations through content

• libraries can add value by taking usually single-person activities and making it a group function
  • mix between primary and secondary audiences
  • meta-conversations
  • provides a unique service to our community that they can't get anywhere else
    • bookstore storytimes are formed because of kickbacks, not what the community needs
  • works the same between books or games
  • not too long ago, the same negative things were said about fiction books
    • "trash, chaff" for the mind (fiction)
  • "this is a library, not an X"
  • not library 2,0, library 36.0 -- libraries are all about change

 

great games for library events

• wii sports
• big brain academy
• pokemon battle revolution
• rock band
• super smash bros. brawl
• DDR

 

• what do kids learn from these?

they learn that "the library gives a st about what they want"

• be sure that our communities see our value

 

GT System: tool from Ann Arbor

local, regional, and national leaderboards for library tournaments

wiki for tournament rules

synchronized tournament days with online finals

gtsystem.org

 

Gamers in the Library -- book by speaker, how to do tournaments

 Create your own educational wiki!Support Community Add to Del.ici.ous Add to DiggPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS