chapter 9

I’m not sure what to think about this chapter. It made a lot of points that I had never really heard before. I’m not even sure if I agree or disagree with them. I would probably want more information before I could decide if I agreed or disagreed. I would have liked them to include more research evidence to back up what they were saying. One thing that I thought was kind of funny was that it said parents should use the same technology as their children to bridge the gap. I guess I thought this was funny because I think it is really weird when my parent’s friends try to add me as a friend on Facebook. I didn’t even add my dad as a friend when he got a Facebook because I just think it’s weird. I’m not sure how to explain it, but I feel I am different around different people. I have a different relationship with my friends than I do with my parents than I do with my professors or employers. So therefore I wouldn’t want my Facebook account to be opened to all of those people. I guess I can see parents being involved in other ways such as playing video games with their kids or text messaging them; although I could see kids not wanting their parents to play with them on games where they communicate with others through headsets around the nation.

I guess the part that really made me think was the section that talked about all those evenings watching TV or playing Nintendo paying off. It compared watch TV to taking a literary analysis class because twisted plots unfold and people blog about favorite characters and plot twist. I thought this was interesting and I agree that the same skills are addressed in classes in which the student analyzes books, but you’re still just watching the show. Reading is a skill that everyone needs to be successful and therefore students need to read books to practice fluency and comprehension. TV can not replace books. It also talked about gamers acquiring complex cognitive skills. I do agree that games are a good way to practice problem solving skills, but I see some drawbacks too. Life is not a game. You can’t always make a decision, “die,” and then get a new life to try it over again. Children spend hours and hours a day trying to figure out these games. They may use trial and error or different strategies to figure out how to make the right choices or moves to beat the game, but in real life we don’t get these options. I do think video games could be helpful as long as they are followed by discussion. I agree that through video games children are able to “experience making big decisions, coordinate resources, and experiment with complex strategies,” but I think a discussion should be followed about what the best decisions were and why, how to use resources effective, and which strategies worked best. I wouldn’t mind using video games in my own classroom in this way, but I couldn’t picture doing it all the time because these games take up so much time to beat and most children get enough experience with them at home.