Call of Duty: Green Ops
by Zane Paradise
Video games are one of the biggest industries in this country, and is getting bigger. Some people see this form of entertainment as dumb things that teens do all day, everyday. But there are some that believe that video games can play an important role in a child’s development and learning, and possibly have the same impact on adults. With all of the environmental issues that we face today, we need to find alternate solutions to educating the population on how to face these problems. Video games could be the solution the country, and maybe the world, has been looking for.
The implementation of environmental advocacy at a young age can have a great impact on that child’s life, making them more aware of the problems and how we are attacking them. But the fact is that kids are not outside learning about the environment, they are inside shooting zombies. This is something that we must accept and embrace.
“Almost all adolescents will have played a video game by middle school, and most of these children will play them on a regular if not daily basis.” If we use the love of video games to our advantage and bring kids closer to the environment through a computer/TV screen, more young people will learn the importance of the environment and why we should attempt to save it.
There have been very little studies showing the impact that video games have on a child’s ability to learn, but there have been some. One study had students in a biology class go through the curriculum by playing an environmental based video game. All of the students took a pre-test, and then some played the game and the others learned in a traditional setting. At the end of the class the students took a post-test on all of the information that they learned. And the results showed that the students that played the game scored higher than the kids that did not play the video game. This showed that the students were able to better comprehend the information after the implementation, and this approach could be used to teach people of all ages, not just children.
There are some games that are trying to teach people about the environment and ways they can help save it. One game is MiniMonos, created in New Zealand, gives the play a small monkey as an avatar. This avatar is put through certain tasks that teaches the player the importance of cleaning up the environment, such as “cleaning up the lagoon, or recycling garbage.”. Kids learn how they can help because these tasks are very similar to problems that we face in the real world. The players receive rewards for completing the tasks, which teaches the player that there are rewards for helping the environment. That is something that all people should learn, especially at a young age.
Video games can be a very important tool that can help teach people about the environment, and it will reach a very large audience. The answer is not within games that involve killing and driving cars, but with games that are solely focused on the environmental problems we face. These games are much less popular but people in the gaming industry believe that these games will become popular, but it will not be an overnight change. This is not the complete solution but it is definitely a great step in the right direction.
[Photo, Classic Video Games, by Patrick Q licensed by CC BY-NC 2.0]
by Zane Paradise
Video games are one of the biggest industries in this country, and is getting bigger. Some people see this form of entertainment as dumb things that teens do all day, everyday. But there are some that believe that video games can play an important role in a child’s development and learning, and possibly have the same impact on adults. With all of the environmental issues that we face today, we need to find alternate solutions to educating the population on how to face these problems. Video games could be the solution the country, and maybe the world, has been looking for.
The implementation of environmental advocacy at a young age can have a great impact on that child’s life, making them more aware of the problems and how we are attacking them. But the fact is that kids are not outside learning about the environment, they are inside shooting zombies. This is something that we must accept and embrace.
“Almost all adolescents will have played a video game by middle school, and most of these children will play them on a regular if not daily basis.” If we use the love of video games to our advantage and bring kids closer to the environment through a computer/TV screen, more young people will learn the importance of the environment and why we should attempt to save it.
There have been very little studies showing the impact that video games have on a child’s ability to learn, but there have been some. One study had students in a biology class go through the curriculum by playing an environmental based video game. All of the students took a pre-test, and then some played the game and the others learned in a traditional setting. At the end of the class the students took a post-test on all of the information that they learned. And the results showed that the students that played the game scored higher than the kids that did not play the video game. This showed that the students were able to better comprehend the information after the implementation, and this approach could be used to teach people of all ages, not just children.
There are some games that are trying to teach people about the environment and ways they can help save it. One game is MiniMonos, created in New Zealand, gives the play a small monkey as an avatar. This avatar is put through certain tasks that teaches the player the importance of cleaning up the environment, such as “cleaning up the lagoon, or recycling garbage.”. Kids learn how they can help because these tasks are very similar to problems that we face in the real world. The players receive rewards for completing the tasks, which teaches the player that there are rewards for helping the environment. That is something that all people should learn, especially at a young age.
Video games can be a very important tool that can help teach people about the environment, and it will reach a very large audience. The answer is not within games that involve killing and driving cars, but with games that are solely focused on the environmental problems we face. These games are much less popular but people in the gaming industry believe that these games will become popular, but it will not be an overnight change. This is not the complete solution but it is definitely a great step in the right direction.
[Photo, Classic Video Games, by Patrick Q licensed by CC BY-NC 2.0]