1/21/2010

In the article, "Digital Game-Based Learning," Marc Prensky argues that video and computer games should increasingly start becoming the new method of teaching when it comes to children and learning. Prensky states that although research supports the fact that children can and do learn numerous amounts of skills and information from video and computer games, many parents and teachers still consider them harmful and a detriment to a child's education. Prensky uses his argument to convince readers that video and computer games not only educate children, but they also keep them entertained and focused while doing so, unlike the "boring" lessons taught in classrooms. He is trying to persuade readers to believe in this new form of education, just like he does. Prensky is convinced that children are satisfied and enthusiastic about this new and upcoming way of learning, and he is trying to convince parents and teachers to be satisfied and enthusiastic about digital game-based learning as well. Prensky believes that what attracts kids to video and computer games is not the violence and the subject matter, but rather the learning the games provide instead. "Kids, like all humans love to learn when it isn't forced upon them," Prensky states. Prensky argues that since children have a better attitude toward digital game-based learning than they do towards school, that the education system should shift its curriculum from classroom lessons to video and computer game-based learning.