Practical Connections

Hi Everyone!

As you all know I am a registered Early Childhood Educator and over the past few blogs we have been discussing the benefits to school age children playing video games. After sharing all my research and knowledge with you guys, I would like to now discuss how it will impact me as an educator who works with school age children.

I am going to completely honest with you all! I truly believe that with the advancing of technology, video games can be an amazing educational tool that can help children with all learning types have a better understanding of what being taught to them. With all the different learning styles that children may have now a day, it is crucial to acknowledge the importance of "knowing [the] children's learning style and finding [the] appropriate ways to create or enhance learning environments such as choosing appropriate game type for each style of learners will increase the student's learning success"(Rapeepisarn, Wong & Khine, 2008, p. 500). Having children with all different types of learning styles, I believe that video games are a good tool to assist all children in learning better.  As well as, having children feel more involved within the lessons and take initiative when it comes to their learning.

BUT....

I am afraid that with the advancing of technology, teacher will lose sight at what the video games are supposed to be used for and will take advantage of them by not using them appropriately. Also I am worried that teachers will become dependent on them as their main resource for teaching the children. In order to stay away from this, research has stated that "[f]or the efficient integration of any new digital resource in educational practices, it is important to focus on issues such as the educational training related to these resources..." (Del Pozo et al, 2017, p. 11). I believe and stress the importance for bot pre-service and in-service teacher to receive training on how to appropriately use technology (ex: video games) within their classrooms. Not only will the teachers benefit from the training but also the children they teach, as they will get to fully experience the benefits of using video games to learn. 

Thank you all for tuning in today!

Talk to you later,

- The positive Gamer


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