Videogames

This text is part of: "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)

Benefits of videogames

Videogames are often considered a waste of time. For many parents they seem like a threat (see: Digital Dementia). Teachers may describe videogames as mind-numbing. Many adults actively oppose the introduction of "screens" into a child's life. They fear the emergence of addictions (see: Homo tabletis). However, there are vast educational opportunities in computer games. They capitalize on exploratory learning. They are one of the best tools for promoting English, teamwork, science, engineering, creativity, etc. They can have a fantastic impact on cognitive skills and knowledge. They provide infinite opportunities for gamification of learning. Games can turn more kids to learning with pleasure. Your average parent may recognize games as shooting and violence. However, kids can see fantastic PhET simulations as games too. Simulations are a great way to turn physics or chemistry into a "game". They will not replace an actual experiment, however, they are free and safe! Best of all, education via gaming requires no teacher. The kid can spend the whole day playing and learning with joy. Naturally, this always needs to be set in proportion to sleep, exercise, social play, time outdoors, etc. In healthy kids, proportions can be self-regulated along the drives of the natural creativity cycle.

Problem solving

A great deal of popular games have the form of simulations. A schooled adult will ridicule gaming: "if games are such great educational tool, why don't they make me use them at work?". This question comes from the lack of understanding of the power of problem solving in the learning process. If a schooled adult faces a management situation (e.g. organizing a barber shop), she will take a text that describes the basic rules and facts governing the situation. She may peek at some diagrams or photos, or watch some instructional video. At the same time, a child might be immersed in a virtual world and engage in the lifelike management of a barber shop at the age of 5. The rules will be the same, however, they can be employed in unmanageable number of permutations that allow of learning via generalization. This is an ideal form of adaptation to a given environment. If we could only afford it, we would permit all adults take risks in the virtual world first. This is not possible. However, for a child, the world of simulation is immense. She can explore many nooks and crannies of virtual reality and learning by solving actual problems that emerge. This is vastly superior over an effort to memorize a set of rules before managing an actual shop. Problem solving in computer simulation has a powerful impact on developing intelligence. Video games are a wonderful preparation for the adult life. By virtue of the learn drive, children know that instinctively. Adults find it hard to comprehend due to their years of schooling in declarative learning based on textbooks. See: Optimality of the learn drive

Goldilocks regulation

Opponents of videogames often say "Kids don't want to learn because it is so easy to get things with a click. Today's children prefer easy things. They are spoilt". In reality, a healthy brain looks for the optimum level of difficulty that maximizes reward as explained with the Goldilocks effect in: Problem solving reward. Optimum valuations for learning and for problem solving use the same neural valuation subsystems.

Figure: Goldilocks effect in problem valuation: Harder problems are more rewarding, but are less likely to be solved. This determines optimum difficulty we look for. The expected reward will then be evaluated in the light of execution costs. Proficient problem solvers are good at spotting problems that maximize the reward. Children are quickly bored with easy games. They also give up games that go beyond their level. They naturally oscillate around games that provide maximum reward, which comes somewhere in the middle of the difficulty range. The same mechanisms work for children, adults or problem solving animals

SuperMemo and games

The best users of SuperMemo have one things in common: healthy learn drive. Quite a number of them admit to having played computer games in youth. Clearly, gaming did not damage their passion for learning. Addictions are born in conditions of distress. Healthy gamers find balance in life and often abandon gaming in teen years or later. Interestingly, years later, ex-gamers often fail to recall the benefits and try to cut gaming time in their own kids (see: Glorification of schooling).

Gaming disorder

Video game addiction aka gaming disorder is now a recognized psychiatric condition in IDC-11. It is known as internet gaming disorder in DSM-5. The recognition came with a great deal of criticism, esp. from researchers who investigate the benefits of computers in education.

Due to their highly rewarding nature, videogames can lead to addictions. A common myth compares the effect of computer games to the danger of drugs. They are allegedly a threat to the best-regulated mind. In reality, like other addictions, they require additional ingredients to take hold of a young man's brain (e.g. authoritarian parenting, pressures of schooling, social exclusion, etc.).

Paradoxically, parents and teachers use tools and remedies that make the situation worse. The old trick of confiscating the laptop or a game console may result in major distress. Resulting behavioral problems are then blamed on videogames, not on the drastic intervention that takes away the valued reward. The sad side effect is that children gradually weaken their relationship with parents and gravitate towards their peers or sink deeper into addictions (incl. videogame addiction).

A normal child gets bored with games sooner or later. This refers to a particular game, to a gaming time on a given day, and to games in life in general. This natural process is slowed down by limits on freedom and other stressors that can lift valuation of the reward. This is how the addiction spiral gets potentiated.

To avoid game addictions, parents should provide unconditional love, freedom, and facilitate access to rich attractive alternatives

For more see: Gaming disorder

Games in education

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For more texts on memory, learning, sleep, creativity, and problem solving, see Super Memory Guru