Do video games help kids learn?
If your immediate response to that question is, “Yeah, how to waste time and test your patience,” you’re probably the parent of a school-age child.
You might be surprised to learn that a panel discussion in Chicago recently saw educators and media specialists acknowledge that video games can not only teach, they just might be the springboard for a whole new approach to learning in the Information Age.
“We spend four, five, six years or more of a kid’s mathematical education teaching them what a 99-cent calculator can do,” said David Williamson Shaffer, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the new book How Computer Games Help Children Learn.