Literature Review

Literature Review

Video games have had plenty of bad press in recent years. Many have said that the only way to get rid of the video game “problem” is to ban all video games out right. However, there are many benefits to playing video games. This project will be looking at those pros and attempt to prove to you that videogames are a beneficial source for teachers to use to improve with their students learning. I will be doing this by asking a number of questions: What do video games help with learning? What are the pros and cons of using video games over traditional methods? Are there benefits you can get from playing video games that aren’t part of a school program? It could be that video games could help the U.S. get back on top for education. The majority of the articles that were found and used for information on this subject falls into one of three categories: general benefits to playing video games, benefits for school (increased learning, increased attentiveness), and articles that don’t fit into either of the other two categories.

One of the main lines of thought when it comes to whether or not video games are a benefit to society is whether or not they help the school system. An article by Vagner Beserra and associates from the Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, “Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games With An Interpersonal Computer,” talks about how arithmetic was taught better when video games were used to teach students versus the standard methods of teaching (such as a classroom lecture). The students also retained the knowledge for a longer time than when they were taught by traditional methods. Another article, “Playing An Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences In Spatial Cognition,” from Psychological Science and written by Feng Jing, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt, talks about how playing action video games helps female minds with understanding spatial thinking to such a degree that there was no difference in how male and females think about different spatial problems. This shows that with video games, females can have just as easy a time understanding many math related problems that they may have found difficult before. Meanwhile, an article from Scientific American titled “Mind Games,” which was written by Alan Gershenfeld, talks about how using video games as an educational tool helps with student learning by increasing their interest in continuing school  as well as how the community on how violent video games affects individuals is split on whether or not playing violent video games effects you long term. An article from The Future of Children, “Media And Attention, Cognition, And School Achievement,” by Marie Schmidt and Elizabeth Vandewater, talks about how the kind of material that digital media produce affect how children do in school. the article goes into more detail by explaining that when children were exposed to educational media, they tended to do better in school, and when children were exposed to pop media, they tended to do worse in their studies and interest in school. Finally, an article from Science Direct, "Beyond Nintendo: Design and Assessment of Educational Video Games for First and Second Grade Students.", by Ricardo Rosas and associates, talks about the benefits of having first and second grade students use video games for educational purposes, specifically focusing on how much was learned, how much motivation the students had to learn more, and how the classroom dynamic changed. Since this entire study was just on how the classroom was affected, that means this source will be very helpful for determining the effectiveness of video games on the classroom.

Another important part of researching this topic is what benefits do video games grant after using them. An article from Everyday Life, "Positive Effects of Video Games on Children.", by Lisa Webber, talks about some of the general benefits that playing video games give to children. The article only gives overall benefits, and doesn’t go too far into specifics, so I will have to use this more as a confirmation that there are benefits, rather than proof itself. However, an article from Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, “Reasons For Playing Casual Video Games And Perceived Benefits Among Adults 18 To 80 Years Old,” by Susan Whitbourne, Stacy Ellenberg, and Kyoko Akimoto, talks about how people of different ages get different perceived benefits from playing the same game, such as improved memory for the older people in the study, and increased mental reaction speed for those younger people in the study. This article will give a more indepth view on what benefits are gained from playing video games.  Meanwhile, an article from American Psychologist, “The Benefits Of Playing Video Games”, by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger Engels, talks on the benefits to playing video games as a whole, looking at all of the areas of the brain that video games affect and how they are affecting them, such as increased memory and mental acuity. As this is a fairly focused study, it will be very helpful as to what benefits playing video games provide. An article from Washington Post, "Playing Video Games Is Good for Your Brain.", by Mark Griffiths, talks about how video games helps those who play them learn tasks and gives those you plays video games therapeutic benefits. This article will help show that video games don’t just benefit in learning school related skills, but any situation that can be simulated with games. Another article about the benefits of playing video games, "9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You.", from The Huffington Post, and written by Drew Guarini, talks about nine different benefits that happens from playing video games. While three of those benefits are specific to certain games, the article can still be used to show the positive effects of games, though unfortunately it doesn’t go into much detail. An article from Plos ONE, “Positive Association Of Video Game Playing With Left Frontal Cortical Thickness In Adolescents,” by Simone Kühn and associates, talks about how playing video games as a young child increases the child's ability to think and reason, especially when it come to strategically planning. As this article is a specific study, I will be able to use the data more in this article. Another article, “Three Questions About the Internet of Things and Children,” written by Andrew Manches, Pauline Duncan, Lydia Plowman,and Shari Shabeti, and from Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, talks about how the increase in different forms of digital media is affecting how children are growing and learning. The benefits that are talked about are not focused on school learning, but more general learning. The article itself was focused, so it will provide some fairly relevant data. An article from Palo Alto Medical Foundation, "The Impact of Video Games.", by Andrea Noricia, talk about how video games are impacting children, and how to monitor what and how much your children are seeing with the media they are using. By doing this, the article said you could help your children mature into well rounded adults. Another article, "4 Reasons Video Games Are Good For Your Health (According To American Psychological Association).",from Forbes, and written by Jordan Shapiro, talks about four different benefits that video games have that were found by the APA, such as cognitive benefits. These benefits are a little unspecific, but restate some of my other points, so that helps. On top  of this, the benefits come from a reliable source. Finally, an article from Business Insider, "15 Ways Video Games Make You Smarter And Healthier.", by Dina Spector and Kevin Loria, talks about fifteen different benefits to playing video games for people of all ages. The benefits talked about are once again, either nonspecific or don’t go into great detail, so this article will mainly be used to help confirm other points.

There are also articles that don’t fall into the other two categories, but are still important for understanding the topic. The article "Playing Video Games Can Help Or Hurt, Depending On Whom You Ask.", written by Nicholas Fleur, from NPR, shows that while there are studies that talk about how violent video games are causing todays youth to be more violent and dangerous as a whole, there are also studies that show that violent video games are helping today's youth become good members of society. These conflicting viewpoints shows how the research community is split on whether video games are or are not harmful. Another article, "The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games." from Raise Smart Kids lists many of the positive and negative aspects of video games and gives some ways to manage any children you may have who play video games. As this articles shows both sides of the argument, that means  that I will be able to look at some of the concerns and use some of the the ways to manage the cons to help counter some of the arguments against me. Another article, this one from Roots of Action, "Effects of Video Games: More Good than Bad for Youth Development? - Roots of Action.", by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, talks about how video games can be good for you, from the perspective of someone who was against video games to begin with. The argument made in the article is specifically for those who are believe that video games are harmful, and tries to put those fears to rest. Another article from Psychological Science, “Deciding to Defect,” by Brad Sheese and William Graziano, talks about how playing violent video games reduces the ability, of those who participated in the study, to be able to work well with others, specifically, the ability to trust others. This article shows that while video games are beneficial, they may also work against you, so it depends on what kind of content is in the game. Finally, an article from Reference & User Services Quarterly, “Gamification in Libraries,” by Eric Phetteplace and Kyle Felker, talks about how libraries may be improved by using gamification, which is thinking about the problem like a video game or like a problem in a video game, to have more patrons use the library and get more of what they need from said library.