Gaming and Education: It is Possible.
Fostering safe and responsible use of online gaming is important and critical in this day and age. Gaming is all around us. Kids are as connected as ever. Through the readings this week, I have found that these games can be educational, a thought that had never crossed my mind before. The first step in creating safe, healthy online gaming habits is to educate children on the dangers that can be present. Using age appropriate language to explain what can happen when one has the ability to communicate with anyone can set children up for success online. Another step is to explain healthy boundaries in respect to time spent on the game. Encouraging kids to spend only a certain amount of allotted time online can help prevent gaming addictions from happening. Finally, it is important to encourage creativity and share in the importance of what they are creating. By doing this, viewing their creations, and spending time with them while they build things on these games helps to foster trust between parents and children and helps to encourage kids to share what they do on the app with the adults in their lives.
It is important for parents and educators to understand the basics behind these games so that they can use them in an educational fashion. My first tip to adults would be to learn the games you plan to use/let kids use. It is important to have first hand knowledge of the ins and outs of the game. This way you can know the dangers or challenges prior to starting with kids. Second, establish boundaries for the game. This could be time played, discussing how to be safe communicating with strangers, or general how to be safe online tips. This helps with communication and trust between students and adults. This will also allow students to see the trust that adults have in them, while allowing parents/teachers to teach safety and boundaries online. Finally, I would recommend that parents/teachers spend time with students while they are playing. By showing interest in their games and the things they build, kids will feel encouraged in their creativity and it could spark interests in creative, design, or technological fields in the future.
A game that I used to play when I was younger that I did not realize fit in to this category (until now) is Club Penguin. While the original platform does not exist any more, there are sub-platforms that recreated the game to still be played today. What made the game fun was the ability to design your own penguin and igloo, the games that were embedded in to it, and the ability to communicate with anyone who was on the same server as you. You could chat with anyone and everyone with very little regulation. The only regulation that was available was that other users could report you for profane language and that would in turn suspend your account. I do not know if it could have been used in a learning way as the platform was very basic and did not have many features. Though I have no doubt, had it been around long enough, creative minds around the world would have figured out how to use it for educational purposes.
