Video Games - Time Wastage Phenomena

In my opinion video games are a form of play that can either relax the mind or stimulate thinking in dynamic ways. I agree to the arguments made by Gee that many games assumed to be a "waste of time" are in fact excellent at teaching critical-thinking skills. Which is evident in a survey made by Schwartz in 1988 were he set out to compare customary teacher-based tutoring of reading and comprehending with practice on a set of computer games derived from analysis of the reading process. 24 Primary School children were selected, who were of average intelligence and who were 18 months or more behind their peers in reading comprehension. The children were split into two groups and assigned to teacher-based tutoring or computer game training group where they received practice on four computer games. The training in both conditions focused on word decoding and phonics. At the end of the study, it was found that almost all the students improved their reading comprehension test score, although the poorest readers made significantly greater gains in the computer game condition than in the teacher training conditions.

Steven Johnson (2005)also looks at a particular interesting skill used by video game players, which he calls telescoping, which is "about constructing the proper hierarchy to tasks and moving through tasks in the correct sequence. It's about perceiving relationships and determining priorities". Telescoping requires the player not only determine their objectives but also prioritize them, which video games rarely spell out the objective - players use what they have come to understand as probing the world to determine how to accomplish the objectives. Which is very true, because in most cases when we play video games we do not consider them as a means of learning, consciously, because play is done at our convenience, which may give ground to the time wasting argument in playing video games, though I disagree to it.

Nathan Holbert uses the example of telescoping in a classroom setup stating the struggle many students have in being given so much information which becomes overwhelming. He makes a suggestion, "As teachers, we may use spiraling and other techniques to organize the topics in a way that takes advantage of telescoping". This is in support the argument raised by Gee, that games are not a waste of time, because though mostly played as and when a player wants to irrespective of the time and place, they have a positive influence to the player regardless of intention.

Brett Brixler, cites topics of particular interest, submitted to Meaningful Play 2008 give a brake down of the meaning of "meaningful play" in two categories, exploring meaningful applications of games and issues in designing meaningful play:

Exploring meaningful applications of games
1. Games to change attitudes, beliefs, or behavior such as social impact games and personal health games
2. Games to stimulate creativity or innovation
3. Games to build social skills
4. Games to advertise (advergames)and persuade
5. Games to exercise specific cognitive functions
6. Games to explore personal belief and help make decisions
7. Games to built knowledge and skills (games for learing)
8. Games for history and cultural heritage learning

Issues in designing meaningful play
1. Game Design for specific audience
2. Story types and play styles
3. Story and storytelling in games
4. Competitive and cooperative play (single player, multiplayer and massively multiplayer)
5. Balancing entertainment and serious goals
6. Unintended and unexpected effects of games
7. Using psychology and neuroscience to design and understand games
8. Evaluation and assessment of games impacts
9. Barriers to the adoptation of serious game

This in conclusion sums up in points the term "meaningful play".

References:

Jessica Harris, The Effect of Computer Games on Children, a Review of the Research
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/occ72-compgames.pdf

James Paul Gee, What video games have to tech us about learning and literacy. 2003
Steven Johnson, Everything is good for you: How today's popular culture is actually making us smarter. 2005
http://techmattersllc.com/pdfs/Shooting+Aliens+The+Gamer's+Guide+to+Thinking.pdf

http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/gaming/node/458