American Library Association Asks: Do Videogames Make Kids Smarter
By Shawn on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 4:52 PM PST In Game Related Science, Gamer Life, Games, Videos
The American Library Association is conducting a study involving twelve libraries from across the country to see if videogames improve literacy and make kids smarter. A video excerpt from Tucson’s News-4 on the program shows kids playing Singstar Pop and Guitar Hero III at their local PimaCounty Library:
“Pima County’s library system is one of a dozen in the country participating in a study to find out if video games improve literacy…
…Luis Aguilar, 11, helped organize a video game club. In the process, he learned filmmaking skills to create a five minute movie about it. Luis believes the games are making him smarter, “Because it helps you with memory, memorizing stuff and hand eye coordination.”
If national research verifies these kids’ experiences, the American Library Association would like to create a video game curriculum for all libraries to use.”
Running across this article on GamePolitics inspired me to look up my local library in Westerville, Ohio. Although the Westerville Public Library isn’t involved in the study, according to the Director’s blog, videogames have had a profound effect on the library circulation. Since the introduction of gaming at the library, circulation has increased by over 22%. Director Don Barlow also claims that kids are coming to play videogames and staying to use the library’s other resources.
Yes, it is true, once teens come to library because of gaming, they also find time to study, to check out books. Most importantly, they also find time to learn. They learn about information technology, they develop research skills that will serve their life-long learning needs.
Gaming in libraries? You Bet! with an investment of about $900, (less than 1 tenth of 1% of budget) we have over 3,000 new young adult library users.
Wish my library had this, I should go suggest it.
Yes, you should.. send them to the link and if you’d like I can even get the library director a direct contact with the Westerville director if they want to find out how they did it.
My library has some games set up. Young kids stuff. As to whether video games makes children smart is hard to say, maybe smart children are just attracted to video games?
how can ppl read book and study if there was videogames in the library u obviously cannot concentrate and there would b tournaments going on, ppl hogging the controller etc.
there would b a huge confusion
Guitar Hero does not make a kid smarter. I thought “oh what a great study!”. Now i see they are taking the results from Guitar Hero? Wow, that study just went down the shitter faster than a fat kid with diarrhea. Guitar Hero is a child’s game where they match colors to buttons, sound familiar to your 8 month old’s play set?
_____Thank goodness… In a world full of bad punctuation, psychotic politicians and television-addicted computer-hating Luddite parents, some people with brains are taking the time to find out that video games do contribute to developing mental powers. Politicians hate anything that they didn’t have when they were growing up–i.e when they were a bunch of spoiled brats on their daddy’s millionaire estates. Semi-literate, beer-swilling parents, they would MUCH prefer their children to rot their minds on television rather than pick up “them damned games.” We currently live in a world largely run by people over five decades old (as shown by the age stats for congressmen in Congressional Quarterly, the oldest Congress yet). And this anti-video games trend won’t be going away for a good long while. It’ll maybe be a closer while with some librarians opening their minds a little…
_____Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, in a neighborhood far away–like, three states away–a group of hard-working, hard-studying schoolchildren were derided by their Luddite parents. “Turn off that game!” said the parents. “Watch Tee-Vee…” Ignoring the mentally destructive rantings of those parents (one of which ended up in prison for pedophilia-related charges), the children continued to play video games…which bolstered their confidence and problem-solving skills. Those children then went on to graduate from college (with honors in some cases), run with the military and generally get good futures ahead of them. THE END, dudes and dude-ettes!
@DUDDEE: I think you’re missing the point.. the games themselves are not what is making the kids smarter.. its the exposure to the library.
Do you really think the kid is going to sit there reading a book when the excitement is on the projector/TV. Yes, it will open them to the environment, but I really don’t believe that it will get kids more involved with reading and school.
Actually, yes I do believe it will get them reading.. and apparently according to the library demographic information that is exactly what is happening. If going to the library is more than a handy euphemism and becomes less stigmatized then everyone wins. I’m more than a bit biased I guess because I’m a writer and an avid reader who laments the lack of interest most people put on reading for pleasure and reading for information these days.
I completely understand your view, but numbers are only numbers. We were kids at one point and did whatever made our superiors think higher of us. If your encouraged to check out a book because you sat there playing games all day, you will check out a book. What I want to see is some type of acknowledgment that they read the books that were checked out, via test or written report. If they could prove that at least 50% of the kids read and understood what they checked out, then I would be more than happy to support the theory and idea of integrating video games into a learning environment.