Molly+Thompson


 * "Don't bother me Mom, I'm learning!”: how computer and video games are preparing your kids for twenty-first century success and how you can help! ** Marc Prensky .  Paragon House  , $18.96 (254p) ISBN 978-  1-55778-858-8

  As a future educator and avid gamer, I found Prensky’s overenthusiastic book, which advocates the educational aspects of video games, not quite as useful to me as it could be to parents and teachers who are what Prensky calls “digital immigrants” (older generations ignorant of video game culture.) The first few parts of the book made me curious and excited to read onward, but as I did, I realized Prensky lacks strong evidence to make his arguments valid. Prensky says that the brains of “digital natives” (younger generations growing up in the digital age) are evolving and physiologically different. He proceeds to state this is only a theory, and if there are changes they are minuscule. Prensky argues that children learn ethics, economics, business, and cooperation on their own through video games, but for each learning skill, he mentions only one game that incorporates it. When Prensky suggests using cell phones in the classroom, I think of everything other than learning a student could be doing on his or her cell phone in class. Perhaps if there were valid results from an experiment entailing the idea of cell phone based learning in the classroom, I would be more inclined to change my doubts. Overall, Prensky gives useful information about the video game culture and encourages “digital immigrants” to be more open minded about their child’s video games. **Pros: ** ·  Attempts to remove the negative ideas about video games ·  Encourages children to get involved in the technology field (game modding, game design and programming) ·  Informative ·  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Encourages communication between parents and gamer children about the games they play **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cons: ** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Limited target audience ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Lacking evidence for valid arguments ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Overenthusiastic tone ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Not many innovative suggestions for incorporating video games in the classroom