The Nintendo and the nine year old
I had an interesting revelation recently. My nine year old niece was visiting for about a week, and at one point in order to keep her entertained, we broke out my old Nintendo 64 so she could play Mario 64.
She had no clue. She had clearly not spent any significant amount of time playing video games.
Many folks would think this was not only okay, but in fact a good thing.
But in watching her trying to play, I realized that I was a little horrified, and for two reasons:
1. I realized that she had no skills at the type of learning that experienced video game players are good at: being able to pick up a new thing with a new user interface, new goals, new metaphors and so on, and get into a mind set to use it effectively quickly.
Military Training Technology: Playing Games
2. As a result of her inability to learn the game skills easily, but also partly because of her character and I think because video games just tend to help kids with this, she was frequently torn between continuing to play and getting frustrated and giving up. I think video games also tend to teach persistence and patience. It was also interesting how in spite of her frustration, the video game was sufficiently engaging (Mario 64 is a famously excellent game) that she kept playing for some time.
I'd long thought people's concerns about kids' playing video games being a waste of time was wrong, but I didn't realize just *how* wrong. I'm now inclined to suspect quite strongly that video games as part of a mix of physical and intellectual activities make for a more rounded child.
PS: her parents were I believe thinking about getting my niece a video game, and I'm now pleased to hear that she's getting a GameCube for Xmas.
She had no clue. She had clearly not spent any significant amount of time playing video games.
Many folks would think this was not only okay, but in fact a good thing.
But in watching her trying to play, I realized that I was a little horrified, and for two reasons:
1. I realized that she had no skills at the type of learning that experienced video game players are good at: being able to pick up a new thing with a new user interface, new goals, new metaphors and so on, and get into a mind set to use it effectively quickly.
Military Training Technology: Playing Games
2. As a result of her inability to learn the game skills easily, but also partly because of her character and I think because video games just tend to help kids with this, she was frequently torn between continuing to play and getting frustrated and giving up. I think video games also tend to teach persistence and patience. It was also interesting how in spite of her frustration, the video game was sufficiently engaging (Mario 64 is a famously excellent game) that she kept playing for some time.
I'd long thought people's concerns about kids' playing video games being a waste of time was wrong, but I didn't realize just *how* wrong. I'm now inclined to suspect quite strongly that video games as part of a mix of physical and intellectual activities make for a more rounded child.
PS: her parents were I believe thinking about getting my niece a video game, and I'm now pleased to hear that she's getting a GameCube for Xmas.