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

Prensky debunks the accepted wisdom that video games are harmful to children. Instead, he contends that games can teach a multitude of skills, including problem solving, language and cognitive skills, strategic thinking, multitasking, and parallel processing. He 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. Better yet, Prensky details positive attributes of popular games, including the controversial Grand Theft Auto, and addresses parent concerns about children becoming addicted, socially isolated, or developing aggression because of games. He offers recommendations for particularly beneficial games as well as Web sites to advance parent learning, and provides sound advice on bridging the gap between what he calls the young digital natives and the older digital immigrants. Parents and teachers will appreciate--and enjoy--this enlightening look at video and computer games. Vanessa Bush
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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.>

MARC PRENSKY is a speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the founder and CEO of Games2train and a pioneer in the field of game-based learning. He has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal , and The Economist , has appeared on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, and was named one of the "top ten visionaries" by Training magazine. >