Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!: How Computer and Video Games are Preparing Your Kids for 21st Century Success - and How You Can Help!

Front Cover
Paragon House, Feb 14, 2006 - Family & Relationships - 350 pages

The POSITIVE Guide for Parents Concerned About Their Kids' Video and Computer Game Playing"Marc knows it all depends on how we use our games. He knows that if parents place good video games into a learning system in their homes they can reap major benefits for their children and themselves. They can accelerate their children's language and cognitive growth." —James Paul Gee, Tashia Mogridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Marc Prensky presents the case—profoundly counter-cultural but true nevertheless—that video and computer game playing, within limits, is actually very beneficial to today's "Digital Native" kids, who are using them to prepare themselves for life in the 21st century. The reason kids are so attracted to these games, Prensky says, is that they are learning about important "future" things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions. Prensky's arguments are backed up by university PhD's studying not just violence, but games in their totality, as well as studies of gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals.

Because most adults (including the critics) can't play the modern complex games themselves (and discount the opinions of the kids who do play them) they rely on secondhand sources of information, most of whom are sadly misinformed about both the putative harm and the true benefits of game-playing. This book is the antidote to those misinformed, bombastic sources, in the press and elsewhere. Full of common sense and practical information, it provides parents with a large number of techniques approaches they can use—both over time and right away—to improve both their understanding of games and their relationships with their kids.

What You Will Learn

The aim of this book is to give you a peek into the hidden world into which your kids disappear when they are playing games, and to help you as an adult—especially if you are a concerned parent or teacher—understand and appreciate just how much your kids are learning that is POSITIVE from their video and computer games.

In the few short hours it takes to read this book, you will learn: What it feels like to be in the world of computer and video games; How to appreciate the breadth and depth of modern computer and video games and the ways they make your kids learn; How to understand the various USEFUL skills your game-playing your kids are acquiring; How to understand your own kids better and build better relationships using games as a base; And, most importantly, How to augment and improve what your kids are learning by HAVING CONVERSATIONS THAT THEY WANT TO HAVE about their games.

From inside the book

Contents

Games Are NOT The Enemy
1
The Rise of the Digital Native
25
6
40
Copyright

13 other sections not shown

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About the author (2006)

Marc Prensky, the originator of the terms digital native and digital immigrant, is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and game designer focusing on education and learning. He gives over 50 talks per year around the world, has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, and the BBC, and has been interviewed in numerous worldwide publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, The Economist, Le Monde, and El Pais. His previous books include Teaching Digital Natives, From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdome, Digital Game-Based Learning, and Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning! Prensky is a prolific essayist and writes a regular column in Educational Technology magazine.

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