Because of its ability to create powerful touchstones, TV enables young people to share cultural experiences with others.
Shared viewing gives family members of all ages an opportunity to spend time together.
Parents can use TV as a catalyst to get kids reading—following up on TV programs by getting books on the same subjects or reading authors whose work was adapted for the programs.
Great television can teach kids important values and life lessons.
TV programs often explores controversial or sensitive issues, which can make it easier for parents and kids to discuss them.
Educational programming can develop young children's socialization and learning skills.
News, current events and historical programming can help make young people more aware of other cultures and people.
Documentaries can help develop critical thinking about society and the world.
TV can help introduce your family to classic Hollywood films and foreign movies that may not be available in your local video store.
Cultural programming can open up the world of music and art for young people.
You can get the daily news, latest sports scores and updates, stock market numbers and even go to classes, all on television. Tele-courses are offered at UM-St. Louis that implement television programming with web-based teaching. These courses do take more dedication, since it is your responsibility to keep up with the television lessons.
______________________________________
A recent study conducted on the benefits of video games found games can provide a context in which participants can discuss scenarios and outcomes in order to facilitate their understanding of important concepts (4). Other researchers have found that children's reading and spelling abilities significantly improved with exposure to educational video games (5). Video games may also improve spatial abilities, the ability to create and apply multiple strategies, and may help develop critical analyzing techniques (6). They provide immediate feedback, so students can explore and learn how to alter their gaming techniques in order to be successful in a particular game. Teachers have also reported that video games led to collaboration among students (4). Many games require that participants work together in order to succeed in the game, which may improve players' social skills. Moreover, Fein, Campbell, and Schwartz found that in classrooms that contained a computer, children were more likely to engage in parallel play and peer interaction (5). Finally, many popular games teach children the value of economics through acquiring money and then trading it for objects that facilitate the playing of the game. Players are also required to meet and exceed challenges, which may increase their desire to meet challenges in other contexts as well (7).
Videogames can be used as research and/or mea-surement tools. Furthermore, as research tools theyhave great diversity>Videogames attract participation by individualsacross many demographic boundaries (e.g., age,gender, ethnicity, educational status)>Videogames can assist children in setting goals,ensuring goal rehearsal, providing feedback, rein-forcement, and maintaining records of behaviouralchange>Videogames can be useful because they allow theresearcher to measure performance on a very widevariety of tasks, and can be easily changed, stan-dardized and understood>Videogames can be used when examining individualcharacteristics such as self-esteem, self-concept,goal-setting and individual differences>Videogames are fun and stimulating for participants.Vol. 20 No.3, 2002Education and Health 47Dr Mark Griffiths is Professorof Gambling Studies in thePsychology Division,Nottingham Trent University.What is clear from the empirical literature is that the negative consequences of playing almost alwaysinvolve people who were excessive users of videogames.Mark GriffithsThe educational benefits ofvideogamesVideogames have great positive potential inaddition to their entertainment value and therehas been considerable success when games aredesigned to address a specific problem or to teacha certain skill.Research hasconsistentlyshown thatplaying computergames producesreductions inreaction times,improvedhand-eyeco-ordinationand raisesplayers’self-esteem.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 2
Consequently, it is easier to achieve and maintain aperson’s undivided attention for long periods oftime.10Because of the fun and excitement, they mayalso provide an innovative way of learning>Videogames can provide elements of interactivity thatmay stimulate learning>Videogames also allow participants to experiencenovelty, curiosity and challenge. This may stimulatelearning>Videogames equip children with state-of-the art tech-nology. This may help overcome technophobia (acondition well-known among many adults). Over timeit may also help eliminate gender imbalance in IT use(as males tend to be more avid IT users)>Videogames may help in the development of trans-ferable IT skills>Videogames can act as simulations. These allow par-ticipants to engage in extraordinary activities and todestroy or even die without real consequences>Videogames may help adolescents regress to child-hood play (because of the ability to suspend reality invideogame playing).There of course some disadvantages toresearching videogames in an educational con-text. For instance :>Videogames cause participants to become excitedand therefore produce a whole host of confoundingvariables such as motivation and individual skill11>Videogame technology has rapidly changed acrosstime. Therefore, videogames are constantly beingupgraded which makes it hard to evaluate educa-tional impact across studies>Videogame experience and practice may enhance aparticipant’s performance on particular games, whichmay skew resultsDespite the disadvantages, it would appearthat videogames (in the right context) may be afacilitatory educational aid.Videogames and thedevelopment of skills amongspecial need groupsVideogames have been used in comprehen-sive programmes to help develop social skills inchildren and adolescents who are severelyretarded or who have severe developmentalproblems like autism.12,13Case studies such asthose by Demarest14are persuasive. Demarest’saccount of her own autistic 7-year old sonreported that although he had serious deficien-cies in language and understanding, and socialand emotional difficulties, videogame playingwas one activity he was able to excel. This wasego-boosting for him and also had a self-calm-ing effect. Videogames provided the visualpatterns, speed and storyline that help chil-dren’s basic skills development. Some of thetherapeutic benefits Demarest outlined werelanguageskills,mathematicsandreadingskills,and social skills.Language skillsThese included videogame play being ableto facilitate (i) discussing and sharing, (ii) fol-lowing directions (understanding prepositionsetc.),(iii)givingdirections,(iv)answeringques-tions, and (v) having a discussion topic withvisual aides to share with others.Basic maths skillsThese included videogame playing pro-moting basic maths skills as children learn tointeractwiththescorecountersonvideogames.Basic reading skillsThese included videogames’ character dia-logue which are printed on the screen (‘Play’,‘Quit’, ‘Go’, ‘Stop’, Load’ etc.).Social skillsVideogames provided an interest that waspopular with other children makes talking andplayingtogethersomucheasier.Atschoolthereare always other children who share a passionfor videogame play.Horn15used videogames to train three chil-dren with multiple handicaps (e.g., severelylimited vocal speech acquisition) to make scanand selection responses. These skills were latertransferred to a communication device. Otherresearchers have used videogames to helplearningdisabledchildrenintheirdevelopmentof spatial abilities,16problem-solving exer-cises17and mathematical ability.18Otherresearchershaveofferedcommentsonhowbestto use computer technology for improvedachievement and enhanced motivation amongthe learning disabled.19,20There are now a few studies that haveexaminedwhethervideogamesmightbeabletohelp in the treatment of another special needsgroup - children with impulsive and attentionaldifficulties. Kappes21tried to reduceimpulsivity in incarcerated juveniles (ages 15 to18 years) by providing either biofeedback orexperience with a videogame. Impulsivityscores improved for both conditions. Improve-ment was also noted in negativeself-attributions and in internal locus of control.The authors concluded that most likely expla-nation for the improvement in bothexperimental conditions was the immediatefeedback. Clarke22also used videogames to48 Education and HealthVol. 20 No.3, 2002Despite thedisadvantages, itwould appearthat videogames(in the rightcontext) may be afacilitatoryeducational aid.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 3
help adolescents learn impulse control. Avideogame was used for four weeks with foursubjects(11to17years)diagnosedwithimpulsecontrol problems. After the experimental trial,the participants became more enthusiastic andco-operative about treatment.Brain-wave biofeedbackNew (as yet unpublished) research23sug-gests videogames linked to brain-wavebiofeedback may help children with attentiondeficit disorders. Biofeedback teaches patientsto control normally involuntary body functionssuch as heart rate by providing real-time moni-tors of those responses. With the aid of acomputer display, attention-deficit patients canlearn to modulate brain waves associated withfocusing. With enough training, changesbecome automatic and lead to improvements ingrades, sociability, and organizational skills.Following on from research involving pilotattentiveness during long flights, a