“The Effects of Playing Educational Video Games on Kindergarten Achievement” By Feng S. Din and Josephine Calao
A study was conducted that tested the effect of Sony PlayStation educational games, referred to as Lightspan, on kindergarten students. The test wanted to see if these gamers performed better academically than those students who did not play these video games. I personally believe that educational video games would be a great supplement either during free time in the classroom or as a activity at home or in an after school program for children of all ages, not just those students in kindergarten. The researchers tested a group of kindergarten students from an urban school, all of them African-American and of a lower socioeconomic family structure. The results of the study were very interesting. They found that boys more often selected computer activities, but there is no difference in the technological competency of boys and girls. The interactive video games kept the interest and engaged the students for a longer period of time, as it used video, audio, and graphics. The study also showed that software that included scaffolding features were more effective than those that did not include these. The final results of the survey of the students indicated that the students who used Lightspan increased their scores on post tests in spelling and reading, but there was not much improvement in the area of basic math skills. The researchers hypothesized that this may be because the students were not mature enough to begin learning the math information presented, not that the educational video games were lacking in intrinsic quality. They think that if the games were presented to the same students in a few more years, when they are more academically mature, the results would be in accordance with those in the spelling and reading scores. They end the article and study with a cautionary note to all students and parents. These video games are meant to be facilitative, not replacements for classroom learning or overemphasized as an educational tool in the classroom. They are a tool that a teacher can add to their teaching arsenal and help to present the students to technology and new ways of learning. Source: Din, Feng S., and Josephine Calao. “The Effects of Playing Educational Video Games.” Child Study Journal 31.2 (2001): 95-103.