Games help educate kids for the future

Most people don’t use the words “education” and “video games” in the same sentence, but an education science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Williamson Shaffer, is trying to change that.

Let’s face it. Gamers and video games in general are mostly stereotyped negatively. Studies about the negative effects of game addiction, politicians trying to push legislation against violent games, and news about gaming related violence abound.

So, to help ease this image and shed positive light on the matter, Shaffer has written a book entitled “How Computer Games Help Children Learn.” On top of this, he has also been actively campaigning to get schools to try and use video games as tools for education, since according to him, video games can help children prepare for future careers.

Further more, he notes that video games can orient children in technology and help them gain the technological experience they need in this fast-paced world. People should also allow their children to play video games, listen to music, surf the internet, as well as use cellphones and computers, as it would result in a tech-savvy workforce in the future.

Now, the UK and Singapore are both pushing to use video games in innovating their teaching methods. The U.S. military, surgeons, and some corporations have also found uses for video games for training purposes.

Meanwhile, Shaffer and his team will be working with a school in Madison, Wisconsin and move on to another one in Chicago by the third quarter of this year, and they will be bringing along their own brand of educational games which can be found at Epistemicgames.com

Most people don’t use the words “education” and “video games” in the same sentence, but an education science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Williamson Shaffer, is trying to change that.

Let’s face it. Gamers and video games in general are mostly stereotyped negatively. Studies about the negative effects of game addiction, politicians trying to push legislation against violent games, and news about gaming related violence abound.

So, to help ease this image and shed positive light on the matter, Shaffer has written a book entitled “How Computer Games Help Children Learn.” On top of this, he has also been actively campaigning to get schools to try and use video games as tools for education, since according to him, video games can help children prepare for future careers.

Further more, he notes that video games can orient children in technology and help them gain the technological experience they need in this fast-paced world. People should also allow their children to play video games, listen to music, surf the internet, as well as use cellphones and computers, as it would result in a tech-savvy workforce in the future.

Now, the UK and Singapore are both pushing to use video games in innovating their teaching methods. The U.S. military, surgeons, and some corporations have also found uses for video games for training purposes.

Meanwhile, Shaffer and his team will be working with a school in Madison, Wisconsin and move on to another one in Chicago by the third quarter of this year, and they will be bringing along their own brand of educational games which can be found at Epistemicgames.com