Don't Dis the DS

“Aren’t you afraid it will rot their brains?” My friend was observing my two older boys sitting in rapt attention on the couch, sharing a Nintendo® DS (a hand-held dual-screen video game console). This was the only thing my oldest had asked Santa for two years in a row (the first year Santa didn’t think a DS was appropriate for a kindergartner). Neither of them had heard me ask if they wanted a snack.

“Not at all, I replied. “I think they can learn something from them.”

“Oh, c’mon – don’t try to tell me they play educational games on those things.”

“Well, yes, in fact, we do have one called ‘Brain Games’…” my answer trailed off, though, because in all honesty no one plays that one much. “…But lately they’ve been more into Star Wars, Mario Cart, and Metroid.”

“I didn’t think so,” my friend said, smugly.

“Well, still, simply playing with electronic games helps kids develop critical thinking skills.”

“Ha!” My friend scoffed.

“Hey – you can’t escape technology…” I answered, lightheartedly. (I certainly can’t – I work for one of the world’s largest technology enterprises.)

“Right, right,” my friend said, cutting me off, obviously not buying it.

I was sure my viewpoint wasn’t simply skewed by corporate ethnocentrism: I have heard a lot lately about digital games-based learning.

Marc Prensky, an internationally acclaimed education and learning speaker, writer, and consultant, authored a book called Don't Bother Me Mom – I'm Learning! He presents the case that video and computer game playing is beneficial to today’s “Digital Native” kids, who learn about problem solving, language and cognitive skills, strategic thinking, collaboration, prudent risk taking, strategy formulation and execution, as well as complex moral and ethical decisions.

Prensky cites research showing the benefits of games in teaching skills children will need in a twenty-first-century economy, pointing to the military use of games to teach strategy, laproscopic surgeons who play games as a “warm-up” before surgery, and entrepreneurs who played games growing up.

I changed my approach with my friend. “Alright, then, if for no other reason, it’s their currency. They have to meet certain requirements in order to have the privilege of playing it.” (Sometimes the requirement was I simply needed them to be still and quiet, but I didn’t mention that, because I didn’t need the “electronic babysitter debate,” either).

“It’s a good way to ensure compliance,” I said with finality. It wasn’t worth discussing further with my friend, whose mind was already made up.

I called to my sons from the kitchen, “Boys – snack?”

No reply.

I walked over to the boys with a plate of muffins and inserted it between their eyes and the DS. They looked at the plate, looked at me blankly and then looked at the plate again before pausing their game.

Apparently their multitasking and parallel processing skills need further development.