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View Points
Traditional Thoughts
Many adults think of youths playing video games as individuals staring at a screen, mindlessly
playing and wasting precious time.
(Jim) Gee () suggests in his book Western Culture's attitude towards video games is
skewed by the widespread opinion that work is meaningless unless it involves "important knowledge"
(i.e. rooted in academic principles). Gaming would therefore fall into the meaningless category.
The question we need to ask is whether or not the basis for this view point is valid. If we
find it is not, then all facts springing from this assumption (work must involve important knowledge)
are also invalid. An excellent way to address this type of question is by examining the basis
of our beliefs.
Stirring the Pot
Johnson's () "thought experiment"
asks the question, "What if videogames had been invented and widely adopted first, before books?"
Stop and think about this for a second. What if video game were invented before books? What would
that mean about our perception of them and our acceptance of new fangled technologies such as books?
We as humans tend to be very resistant to change and very slow to accept new ideas. Change seems to
scare us, but change is the only way to improve. We therefore ignore the potential of new ideas at
our own peril.
Human history shows us how our current situation is simply replaying a repeated trend of rejecting
new forms of literacy. The transitions from tablets to scrolls to codices to Guttenberg's printing
press have all proved to be difficult, if not down right divisive periods in our literary history.
Now in the digital age, society continues to grapple with former notions of information and how it
applies to our current world, a world full of new ways of learning that require the use of technology.
Johnson's "thought experiment" transposes today's worries of digital forms of learning onto books.
What would happen if a society used to interactive video games were suddenly inundated with these
books that had to be read alone, isolated from friends and family? Arguments such as libraries that
stifle social interactivity and neglect community building, books which lack complete sensory and
motor stimulation, and reading as a submissive, non-participatory action leading to learner passivity
turn our former notions of video games upside down. These arguments may seem absurd to those of us
who grew up with books. The critical question is really to address the issue of where our pre-existing
judgements about video games emulate. Just because they were first, does that mean they are better?
Changing Our Minds
Part of this image issue may be due to the general belief that students' marks decrease as the
number of hours spent gaming increases. What it is lacking from this analysis is the investigative
rigger which would show us that the decrease in marks is specific to gaming. Increased time spent
away from homework on any given weekday evening whether gaming, playing sports, reading, etc will
decrease a student's mark accordingly. Just because gaming has received a bad reputation in the
past, does not discredit it as an effective educational tool now and in the future.
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