Now Teaching AP Tetris

One of my earliest memories was when I was three years old. For Hanukkah that year my parents got me and my siblings a Nintendo. All of my relatives were over and everyone watched my older brother beat Super Mario 2 in one sitting. I remember a group of adults including my parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents all cheering my brother on as he played. In retrospect I am certain they had absolutely no clue what the hell he was doing, but one thing I am sure they realized is that my hyperactive brother with the attention span of a lit match, sat still playing the game until he finally beat it. At that point two things happened, one we became a video game family, always begging our parents for the latest games and systems. Second, my older brother began a lifetime of video game dominance, always beating me at any game (unfortunately for me my younger brother is also better at video games than me, thus I was stuck in the middle of constant losing at video games, however I was instead blessed with the looks in the family so I shouldn't complain too much, plus I can always beat my little sister at games.) While reading the article I thought about how my brother could sit down and play video games for hours, while unable to sit still at the dinner table. Thus my family used video games as a behavior management tool and eventually my brother was able to apply the same focus he put into video games to school and other activities.

There is certainly much to learn from video games, from spatial awareness and motor skills to world geography trying to catch Carmen Santiago. Personally there are some skills I learned in video games. In strategy games I learned about saving money. I was terrible at saving my allowance for the more expensive bicycle , instead spending it on pogs and legos. However in the video game, I quickly realized in order to defeat the enemy, I would need to save money to buy the tank instead of spend it on common infantry. Similarly in those games I learned military tactics to the point of when I took a military history and strategy class, I had already known some of the fundamentals of Sun Tzu's Art of War, before even opening the book. As a future history teacher, I feel as though my subject could be taught in games. I always loved the role playing and adventure games while in middle and high school. My favorite part of the games were the epic stories, with alliances between empires, betrayals and wars. I think game companies could save a lot of time if they based their stories on actual history. Just an idea of mine.

While there is certainly much to be learned in video games many of those skills can be learned in an even more interactive atmosphere. The article and video describe three areas where this is clear: teamwork, creativity and problem solving. While teamwork is a necessary part of many games, it is just as necessary in any team sport. Cooperation must be learned for a team to succeed, and students get physical activity as well. Gee describes how in some video games the player can produce a creative aspect of the game. For example building, a kid can build their own personal house in The Sims. Again, it is good there's creative outlet in the video game, however what about the arts. The arts are a form of creative production that is not confined to a games limitations and is more likely to be appreciated. In terms of problem solving, an essential part of video games, I feel like science and math labs teach problem solving with many more real world applications.

My last point about video games, a topic that cannot be ignored is video game addiction, which is rapidly becoming a very real problem especially amongst high school students. One of my best friends became addicted to World of Warcraft. He dropped out of UofM, stopped caring about his physical well being, and stopped spending time with any of his friends. Video game addiction is something that can ruin relationships and lives, and are often signs of other mental and emotional issues. A former teacher of mine is releasing a book about his own video game addiction and how to help people with video game addictions. He currently runs clinics for people with video game addiction. His website/blog is http://kevinjroberts.net/ for those interested in learning more.