Many Adults Think Video Games Should Be Taught In Schools
A new survey found that the majority of adults think that video games should be taught inside the classroom.
Video games are a big part of culture, and their use is only growing in the mainstream. As it now appears, long gone are the days that adults looked at video game consoles as devil’s advocates and simply mindless, violent entertainment. In fact, so many adults now see video games as a beneficial part of society, that a recent survey found that the majority of them believe video games should be taught in the classroom.
OnePoll, a market research company, released the results from a survey of over 2,000 adults gathering their viewpoints on video games. The poll was commissioned by Wargaming, a well-established global company that develops military-style games. According to reports from The New York Post, more than half of the respondents said they believe video games should be taught in schools.
Furthermore, the poll asked the participants at which grade level they felt video games should be implemented into classroom lessons. 41% of them relayed that they should be taught as early as elementary school, and just a little more, 42% felt that instruction should be held off until middle school. Adddiontaly, 53% of respondents felt that this form of recreation should be saved for after-school extracurriculars.
Agreeing that they should be taught in schools is arguably a vague, confusing sentiment. How exactly does this work? Should children be required to take a class in which they sit in front of a screen and game? Should it be an elective, used as an opportunity to teach coding and computer science fundamentals? It’s hard to tell, but some people expressed why they feel video games can support educational lessons.
Artur Pliciennik, the publishing director at Wargaming said that there is plenty of opportunities for learning within video games. Fundamental skills like critical thinking, creativity, hand-eye coordination, and communication skills can be strengthened in the process of gaming. But furthermore, there are plenty of games, such as Minecraft, that foster a love for STEM fields. What’s more, unlike core classes that are often viewed as boring for students, many children will gain these skills without feeling like they are sitting through a mandatory class.
In retrospect, video games are already being used –even at the elementary level- to teach children. So as ludicrous as this polling may seem to some, it is alive and well in many schools. Teachers take advantage of online sites and apps like Zearn and Khan Acadamy to teach children. After all, nearly every single child in America now plays video games in one aspect or another.
That’s not to say that video games should rule the school, as there is still plenty of research depicting the harms of screen and game time. Ultimately, too much screen time can lead to eye issues, sleep deprivation, and an increased risk of obesity. Still, kids are apt to continue to play them, and schools can only benefit from using them to incorporate and retain attention to learning topics.
Does this information suggest that Video Game 101 may soon become a core class in schools? Likely not, but what is likely is to see their use become more prevalent in the classroom. Whether or not this will truly be beneficial to those involved is still unknown, but video games are here to say, and more and more people are discovering their unlimited potential.
