Written by These days, video games have been blamed for everything. Parents have been worried that their children are not learning anything because games take up their time and attention. A lot of them are threatening to uninstall all the video games until their children learn something valuable. Recently, Microsoft’s Kinect began releasing engaging games in order to promote higher learning for kids.
Microsoft, along with Sesame Workshop and National Geographic, is releasing a series of “edutainment” video games – Kinect Sesame Street TV and Kinect Nat Geo TV. These games allow the children to sing and count along with Sesame Street characters such as Elmo and Cookie Monster. In addition, the children can explore a jungle with National Geographic.
With the use of Kinect’s body and voice recognition, children are able to learn things in an interactive kind of way. According to Microsoft, these edutainment video games will make learning for children a lot more fun. Furthermore, the reason children don’t really learn is that they have the tendency to get bored easily. That’s why they have to be presented with educational tools that are interesting.
Even though some parents have expressed an interest in these games, a communications professor from Wake Forest University thinks otherwise. She said that the effect of video games on children is degrading. Instead of promoting learning, it deteriorates their ability to grasp the things that they need to learn, such as Science and Math. Thus, it is still important that children engage in old-fashioned play.
One professor countered that depending on the content, children can benefit from an interactive educational video game. For instance, Sesame Street has long history of using research to decide what can provide quality media to its viewers. For decades, the program has been an excellent resource to teach children important information. A lot of children have learned how to recite ABCs and count 123s because of the program.
Sesame Street’s reputation as a children’s educational program speaks for itself, regardless of its venture into Kinect territory. The only thing that has changed here is the way the program interacts with the children – in a mentally and physically engaging way.
