Computer Technology And Its Social, Moral, And Ethical Implications For Teachers

Using persuasive writing, Wright begins to influence his audience that game play is a beneficial source of entertainment not a wasteful one. Playing video games increases creatively, self esteem and improve problem solving skills of the players. Video games are becoming test runs that appear or feel close to the real thing. Where you can control everything with added effects like magic or future technology. Games have the potential to exceed almost all other forms of entertainment media. They tell stories, play music, challenge us, allow us to instantly communicate and interact with others. Encourage us to create things, connect us to new communities, and let us play with people across the world. Unlike most other forms of media, games are inherently tangible. According to Wright young children spend their days in imaginary worlds, substituting toys and make believe into the real world that they are just beginning to explore and understand. Wright states that games are the result of imagination and that they consist of rules and goals. Generation of teenagers has grown up with different set of games. Teenagers use the scientific method rather than reading the manual first. Games today maybe a person’s only place to express a high-level of creativity and growth. Older generations have a lot of criticisms for games, the games can help a person learn to think on his or her own.

M. E. Rutger Engels and Adam Lobel. The research journal explores the benefits of playing video games. Similar to Jane McGonigal, the authors of the journal state that video games can be motivational, important for social bonds, research and so much more. The source of motivation for gamers is failure, players try their best. When they do fail it does result in [A]nger, frustration, or sadness, although players often do feel these negative emotions intermittently. Instead, or as well, players respond to failures with excitement, interest, and joy” (Granic et al 71). Essentially players get a sense of optimism from playing video games. Similar to the primary source, Granic et al state that players do not give up when they do lose in a game. Instead they persevere and become better. The research journal includes a study conducted in the U.S in which it [S]howed that adolescents who played games with civic experiences (e.g., Guild Wars 2, an MMORPG, or massive multiplayer online role-playing game) were more likely to be engaged in social and civic movements in their everyday lives (e.g., raising money for charity, volunteering, and persuading others to vote) (Isabel Granic et al. 73). This is similar to Jane McGonigal statement in the primary source. She also believed playing video games leads to players feeling extremely well about themselves. This then encourages them to help others and causes bigger than

The definitions of gamification and game-based learning are both used under the umbrella term of “E-Learning”, however, there are differences between the two. The term ‘gamification’ was first coined by Nick Pelling in 2002 (Marczewski, 2012) and is the idea of bringing game design elements, mechanics, aesthetics and frameworks to non-game situations such as education, in order to motivate or encourage a particular behaviour by increasing user engagement (Deterding et al., 2011). On the other hand, game-based learning refers to using games in order to meet learning outcomes (Isaacs, 2015). According to a report on the current state of online gaming by Spilgames, more than 1.2 billion people play games worldwide (Takahashi, 2013) and by incorporating the persuasive elements of games through gamification into the mundane tasks of everyday life where repetition may be prevalent, such as education; motivation and interest may be aroused.

“Video games are bad for you, that’s what they said about rock-n-roll” (Shigeru Miyamoto). Video gaming is regarded as a ubiquitous part of children and adolescents’ life. Children who are daily involved in this activity in the US account for 97% of their total. Additionally, for those at an average of 8-13 years old, approximately, 8.5% of them are addicted to playing video games. Moreover, children at the age of 13-18 spend 16 hours per week playing. Video games are so prominent in this current world that we cannot prevent them from being involved entirely. While others believe that video games should not be made available to

Our lives have become busier and therefore there is less time for complex gaming. Casual game use is on the rise as such games are simple and can be played quickly (“The Rise and Rise of Casual Gaming,” 2008). Jesse Schell (2010) observes games are becoming an extension of our real life, for example, fitness trackers and Wii fit, ‘brain exercising’ apps to ward off dementia, good driver apps that are provided by car insurance companies, point systems for shopping rewards and weight watchers. We can even compete with others in these games using leader boards. In the future there may be reward systems for brushing your teeth or using public transport (Schell,

During Jane McGonagall’s 2010 TED Talk video “Gaming can make a better world”, she states “the average young person today in a country with a strong gamer culture will have spent ten thousand hours gaming by age 21”. Such numbers alone should pique the interest of every educator in our country. Young people today spend the same amount of time learning at school as they spend gaming (TED Talk, 2010). Many people view video games as fun, exciting, and adventurous outlets where they can escape reality and be creative innovators. As educators, we want our classrooms to accomplish similar outcomes. We want learning to be fun, exciting, and adventurous. We want our learners to be creative, critical-thinking innovators who strive to change the world. This brief dissertation will evaluate the influences gamification can have on teaching and learning, the science behind learner motivation and its connection with gamification, analyze how gamifying supports differentiated ways to teach and learn, and discuss how technologies and gamification are being used to enhance teaching and learning.

Video games plays an important role in the cognition process in many of this generation children. This statement is the main point of this TedTalk arguement led by Gabe Zichermann in the presentation called “Video Games: How Games Make Kids Smarter”. Gabe Zichermann is the world’s leading expert in the topic of gamification; he is also a public speaker, author and entrepreneur, and the founder and editor-in-chief of a magazine called “Gamification.co”. Gabe Zichermann discusses that generation G (the current generation) obtain, learn and process information differently compared to any other generation. The term “gamification” is the application of gaming mechanisms in non-game circumstances and is the process of engaging the current generations

The New York Times Sunday Magazine published an article “Just One More Game …: Angry birds, Farmville, and Other Hyperaddictive Stupid Games” written by Sam Anderson, a critic and prolific journalist, which shows a real fear from gamifying our society. As an illustration, he uses Nintendo’s game Tetris to relate a paradigm shift that which creates an infinite loop of competition, creating the “gaming addiction.” In addition, he draws a close relationship between simple games, convenience, user-friendliness and instant gratification and, then points out, corporations take advantage of this gaming addiction by inconspicuously trying to control free will by gamification. The author explicitly asserts his fear of gamification but, ultimately, shows evidence of how it could potentially make users more conscious of their cognition. I agree with the author on his viewpoint but disagree at the same time. For instance, gamification does have the power to increase cognition and promote personal growth in areas such as health and education. However, gamification must

Ethical use of technology is something not only our homes should adopt but the classrooms and any other place, we intend to make use of the scientific achievements. The question arises as to why ethics have so much importance in every aspect of life. It is the ethics, which tell us how one thing has to be done and how we should do one thing (Petrina, 2007). This statement appears to be similar however, two meanings have. Technology's usage should be defined in terms of its ethical issues and as its users; we should know how we are supposed to use it to prevent it from exploitation. Similarly, inside a classroom it is important that the way students handle technology, freed from exploitation, students must handle the way technology, and teachers fulfill the ethical requirements. Access to any material not owned by the student or the teacher may have some copyright issues and that is where implementation of ethics comes foremost. The usage of such materials can be made legitimate if only the credits for the work done are given by acknowledging the writer or the designer. Other than this, ethical issues also revolve around usage of inappropriate content by students. This has been the major issue of all time and several methods can be implemented to refrain students form usage of inappropriate content or provide them protection against usage of harmful content available on the World Wide Web. Technological usage has

“Electronic games are now an everyday part of childhood and adolescence” (Olsen, 2010). Considering children and adolescence are our future, parents need to consider and monitor how these electronic games are affecting their child. There are more studies afloat that report the negative affects of video games over the positive effects until recently. Children and adolescents become addicted to video games easily so it is important to monitor what they are playing and how it is affecting them and their character. A recent study on many boys and girls reported why they are

This is a wonderful point, if of course the instructor chooses to incorporate actual video games into the class at all. I don’t believe the author of this article fully understood the concept of gamification. It seems to me that she believes everyone will be sitting around playing video games all day. When, in reality, it’s simply borrowing game mechanics of achievement, progress, collaboration, competition, chance, and success to bring into classroom scenarios. A gamified classroom may never see an actual video game used in class at all! I believe it would be up to the instructor to choose whether or not to incorporate games into their curriculum. From this article I see a problem that needs to be addressed. The problem is misinformation regarding what gamification actually entails. A clear line should be drawn between educational learning with games versus personal playing. To be frank, I wouldn’t support gamification at all if it constantly had me playing video games to finish homework assignments. I wouldn’t enjoy games to the fullest, or at least I wouldn’t find enjoyment playing them outside of school because it’ll feel like work. Yet, on the occasion a homework assignment to play a game would be

Wright is a famous video game creator and has worked on countless video games. In doing this, he greatly adds to his credibility and this increases his evidence’s credibility as well. He is deeply familiar with how video games can affect people and knows an extensive amount about how they are created and what they are made to influence in people’s minds. Wright also created games such as “Sims,” which are meant to stimulate imagination, creativity, and help create a community. By being a creator of a game like this he shows that video games can be used to create a sense of community, belonging, and encourage the imagination. Rather than being mindless, worthless, and unimportant, Wright shows that video games can be used to help children improve their thinking and

Before one can begin to analyse games in terms of their engagement and participation qualities, a definition of what a game is and the characteristics that make them effective must be established. Koster defines games by saying they are, ‘iconic depictions of patterns in the world…games are puzzles to solve’ (2004, p. 34), indicating that games are simply non-threatening representations of reality designed to teach the player skills that they will first have to discover for themselves. According to Koster the skills games intend to teach are often, ‘things that we can absorb into the unconscious as opposed to things designed to be tackled by the conscious, logical mind’ (2004, P. 76) which is something that can be seen in both Guitar Hero and Candy Crush. On the surface, Guitar Hero is a game about being a rock star and playing music, but the way the game is played aims to improve hand-eye coordination

Gamification, over the last decade, has been a topic of increased interest in the education community. Many articles have been written about the application of game-based learning mechanisms and strategies as they apply to K-12 education, and higher education alike, but empirical studies on the application of these strategies makes up a much smaller set of existing research. The articles Digital Game-Based learning: Impact of Instructions and Feedback on Motivation and Learning Effectiveness and Designing Game-Like Activities to Engage Adult Learners in Higher Education focus on the application of game-based learning principles and examine their effectiveness on deep learning, motivation, engagement and building community.

Many young children and teenagers have heard their mother’s incessant plead to get away from the screen and to go outside or pick up a book for once instead. The urge to play “just one more level” before starting that homework or doing those chores can be quite distracting. But are video games really as awful as Mom exclaims or as brutal as those TV ads depict? It turns out that video games can have a strong impact on participants’ lives in both positive as well as negative ways.