Educational Video Game Upsets Parents

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J. DOe
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Educational Video Game Upsets Parents

Warning: There are some relatively brief video game shots in the videos associated with the 2 articles mentioned below.

The Subject line article, at http://www.koat.com/news/...">http://www.koat.com/news/23811160/detail.html]http://www.koat.com/news/...., says:

Quote:The video game that's fully funded by a Department of Defense grant has some parents questioning its violence.

They're blasting and learning at the same time, but some parents have their concerns.

"We are feeding the addiction of these children to video games," parent Marlene Perrotte.

School officials said the game covers math that ranges from basic properties to algebra two and simply reinforces what the students have learned in class.

"This is something that just like a 21st century flash card really," said Gary Bodman, with Madison Middle School. "They can use jetpacks and at the same time they have to know what the associative property is."

I have looked at the associated video and it only shows one parent, i.e., Marlene Perrotte, so it is unclear how many parents there actually are that have the concerns about the violence (although I, at least, would be somewhat concerned about violence as well considering it is being fully funded by the Department of Defense), and in particular about how potentially addictive it may be. However, there is a related article, at APS">http://www.koat.com/education/23704486/detail.html]APS New After School Program A Success, that says:

Quote:Sixth-graders have a blast playing the video game that has all the bells and whistles.

"I never knew what prime numbers were when I came in here," said Jonathan Burton, student.

He said now he knows what prime numbers are because of the game.

"I don't like to leave. If I could have a choice to play this night and day, all summer, I would play it every day," said Burton.

Action 7 News was told that students will be able to take a disc home and play the program this summer.

Younger kids (and many adults as well) tend to exaggerate, plus it is also just one student, so I would not put too much weight on what he said about playing the game day and night. However, it does indicate that this may be a valid concern of parents. Fortunately, the first article also says that:

Quote:The school system said they'd be more than happy to let concerned parents play the video game to get a better understanding of its usefulness.

Neither of these articles actually mention what the video game in question actually is, but the article at School">http://civilizedgamers.com/headlines/20100607/school%E2%80%99s-use-math-...aEU(tm)s Use of Math Videogame Under Fire says that it "appears to be DimensionM from Tabula Digital".

- John O.

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