8+Book+Review

** Information: ** Paperback, by David Williamson Shaffer (Associate Professor of Learning Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a game scientist at the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory) // How Computer Games Help Children Learn. //   David Williamson Shaffer. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006. 239pp. $11.56  ** “Outside the Box” Thinking: ** Below is a review of //How Computer Games Help Children Learn// by David Williamson Shaffer (who is a professor as well as a gaming scientist) as written by Leah G. Doughman at the University of West Georgia. Note that Doughman found the text to be beneficial to her as a Media and Technology Graduate Student and to her theology of teaching, but found it challenging to implement some programs and/or games into her second grade elementary classroom. However, she does feel that the overall ideology is needed for all teachers, and the games listed in this book would be very beneficial to many middle and high school teachers and students.
 * Book Review: How Computer Games Help Children Learn **

//How Computer Games Help Children Learn// introduces and demonstrates how specific technologies can be incorporated to produce innovative, “high-level thinking,” globally competitive students. (p. 4). This book helps teachers to move beyond the “skill and kill” way of thinking and innovation. (p. 3). A globally competitive market does not want standardized students with standardized skills, because the market cannot compete globally with standardization. It is an innovative world that requires creativity and new thinking.

Schools are beginning to change and take on a new shape. They are trying, yet struggling to keep up with today’s technology and to prepare students for their technologically advanced jobs as well as world. “Developmental psychologists have known for nearly a century that children learn from playing games.” (p. 6). But what exactly is a game? According to Shaffer, “games assign roles to the players who learn through trial and error”; it is about finding “creative solutions to problems rather than looking for right and wrong answers.” (p. 38). If the games are fun then success will be met through “trying and achieving.” Shaffer also goes on to make a very valid point: “Computer and video games can change education because computers now make it possible to learn on a massive scale by doing the things that people do in the world outside of school. They make it possible for students to learn to think in innovative and creative ways just as innovators in the real world learn to think creatively.” (p. 9).

Throughout his book, Shaffer listed a several games, such as //Digital Zoo, Soda Constructor, science.net, journalism.net, Urban Science, Pandora Project// (each chapter goes into details of a particular game), that can be used in the classroom that help prepare students for the “real world” in a fun and innovative manner. Based on the results, the games appeared to be very beneficial; Shaffer tried each game out with a group of students to provide evidence of growth in innovation. He believes that through games and technology educators can help prepare students for their futures and promote innovative thinking that is needed in a competitive market.

** Summary: ** //How Computer Games Help Children Learn// is a great read and worth anyone’s time if they are concerned with creating and fostering lifelong learners that can compete in a global market and bring success back to our economy. Shaffer provides a good overview of the games, what they can do for students, and what has been learned from them. Throughout the book, I felt the same as Shaffer—we need to prevent standardizing our students and their skills. We need to stop wasting our time and money on things that are not going to be helpful in a competitive, global market and start focusing on skills that will. “We have to start preparing children—all children, rich and poor, at risk and gifted, urban, suburban, and rural—for the challenge of innovative work.” (p. 188).