Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Could computer games help to transform the way we learn? (04 Jul 2005) For the last few years there has been a huge explosion of interest in the potential use of computer games as learning tools, much of this driven by research into children playing games in the home. This research counters the arguments that games are mindless fun, antisocial and damaging to traditional skills such as literacy. In contrast, there's now a huge amount of evidence to suggest that computer gaming is profoundly social and that it stimulates literacy; in the games themselves, in the production of 'fanfiction' (stories, poetry, novels, songs etc written by fans of a particular series), and in reading the marketing material that accompanies games. Most significantly, this research has discovered what children have known for a very long time - that games are hard and that, in fact, this difficulty is what makes for a good game. Far from being mindless, games require a significant number of skills - not just hand-eye coordination, but the management of complex variables, interpersonal communication, literacy and problem-solving, to name but a few. Article URL: http://www.nestafuturelab.org/viewpoint/vision/vision_01_01.htm Read 134 more articles from NESTA Futurelab sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: From involvement to engagement to improved learning     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy