In Defense of Computer Games

I know most of you are reading this because you just couldn’t believe your eyes. A teacher who is in favor of computer games? This guy has got to be kidding! This is crazy! Games are the biggest time wasters in school computer labs! But maybe he has a good argument and I can stop feeling guilty when I play them myself...

We teachers who work in computer labs fight a never ending battle to keep students on task. When you put a computer in front of a person and then attempt to give them directions, you are fighting with that machine to hold their attention. I have done everything I could think of to win that battle. I have disconnected mice. I have told them to sit on their hands. I have turned off monitors. I have used software that allows me to disable their screen and only shows what I want. Thanks Apple for Remote Desktop! I may win the battles, but the war never ends.

Computer Games can make this war even harder. Sometimes your students are just playing Freecell on the local machine, sometimes they are playing a game against many players on the Internet. Our school network does block out most games sites, but there is always a way around. My students discovered that some game sites have foreign language equivalents and went there. Some students used proxy servers so the network filter was clueless. Eventually we catch them and stop them, but it never completely stops.

So what can I say that is positive about computer games? Well, first and foremost, games are a great way to teach absolute beginners how to use the graphical user interface or GUI. You set someone up with a nice game of Solitaire, and they are moving the mouse around and clicking in no time. It is a very user friendly introduction to “mousing around.”

I am not talking about little kids here either. Kids seem to know inherently what to do with computers. No, I am talking about my adult education classes. These are people, many retired, who are taking night school courses on Windows, Word, Excel, and the Internet. They did not grow up using a computer, or if they did, it processed big piles of cards or spit out information on a Teletype machine. They have trouble using a mouse. I give them credit though, they are there and they want to learn. First lesson, Solitaire!

Second, I believe computer and video games are a major factor in Computer Innovation. They are the Indy cars of the computer world. They require faster, stronger, more robust computers to run on. The manufactures make more memory, better video and sound cards, faster networks, and generally better computers because these gamers are constantly nipping at their heels. Better screen resolution and more memory are good for all of us. Faster is better!

Yes, we could all get by on slower computers. Really, how fast can you type? But would you want to go slower? Not me! Our New York State motto is, “Onward and Upward!” I drool over the machines in the catalogs. This computer is less than a year old and already I have the “I wants” for a new one. I am saving up, and someday I plan to contribute to our tech economy. Gamers are patriotic, they are always defending their country from invaders, saving the planet from aliens, and contributing to the economy. Thank you gamers.

My high school students tell me that they like to play computer games because it keeps them out of trouble. Computer Games as the Anti-Drug... Okay, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. However, they aren’t allowed to do either in class. Sometimes if it is a day before a vacation, and everybody has all their work done, I let them play. Then I don’t have idle hands in the lab. We have rules you know...

Third, I like to play computer games as a break from the day. Before school, during lunch break, during commercials of my favor science fiction show. Tell me you didn’t see that coming... I play games like Mahjong, Free Cell, Snood, and Spider Spades. I don’t really try to get the top score and I don’t really keep playing a game until I have mastered it. I am not much for shoot-em-ups. I like all my violence to be on television where it belongs.

Brain exercise. We keep reading in the newspapers about obesity and getting physical exercise. What about the old frontal lobe? Actually, I am not sure which part of your brain is most stimulated by playing computer games. There is an entire branch of mathematics dedicated to game theory. I take that to heart. When I taught fourth and fifth grades, I would teach my students how to play chess. By getting them to think a couple moves ahead on the chess board, I found it was easier to show them math problems that took multiple steps to solve. Articles have been written that say if you want to stay sharp in your old age, you need to stimulate your brain. Use it or lose it.

We say that the United States is a republic, a representative democracy. But it is also a capitalistic society where competition in the market place is key. Games are all about competition. In many schools we have gone out of our way to cut down on competition. We do a lot of team building exercises. We do a lot of things that have come to be seen as inclusive or politically correct. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se. Okay, maybe we aren’t training The Last Starfighters... But even though we fight it, competition is the American Way. Playing games is the American Way too.

Okay, red four on the black five...