Video games have come a long way since pong hit arcades and Atari game systems about three decades ago. These days highly developed games are utilized by the military, corporations, even unfortunately by terrorists to train and teach people complex skills and thought processes.
Educational institutions lag behind other industries in the adoption and deployment of video gaming technology. Instead schools are teaching kids how to memorize and perform repetitive processes for standardized tests required by the no child left behind initiative. That initiative had good intentions. However, it is now being utilized to insure that all children are held back in their development of complex problem solving skills. It prepares children for the types of jobs that were available in the early 1950’s but not the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Recently a science professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Williamson, evangelized the need for schools to use games to prepare kids for the workplace of tomorrow. Already today many jobs require workers to juggle technology, flipping from screen to screen system to system, sending and receiving hundreds of emails, researching information online and transacting with people virtually, on the phone and in person.
Schools today don’t provide practical experience with that type of rapid paced work in multiple environments and at speeds that are astronomical compared to the era of Rosie the Riveter. My Great Grandmother worked in a bomb testing manufacturing plant during world war II. Its not likely that my children will work in a manufacturing plant, but it would not surprise me at all if they were working in a virtual environment when they graduate from school.
Put a kid in a first person shooter game online where they are working with a team of other people to take down a Star Wars command post and things actually seem much more modern and realistic. Players have to toggle between multiple systems, pay attention to a rapidly changing landscape and fluid situations. They have to rapidly improve their skills, strategies and methods while adapting to changes that are happening and produced by other players, not to mention the virtual communication that is occurring.
See the complexity of this World of Warcraft Screenshot
The same can be said for many different types of games that encourage critical thinking, and fast paced action. Players might have to switch from a system to drive a vehicle, fly a plane, choose between weapons, or chat with 10 other players at the same time. Plus, the experience of dealing with the technology interfaces whether those are through a PC, or Wii or Xbox or Playstation, the networks involved and more put kids in a position where they have to keep their real technology running to continue to play. That is very similar to what it takes for today’s mobile employee to keep their own systems and operations running, all so that they can be online where they can get the job done.
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