The
investigators were trying to ascertain if card, board, and video games would
improve specific brain functions (reasoning and speed processing). While
educators are more concerned about the mastery of content areas in our
children, Bunge was triggering a different assortment of brain-related
functions independently: reasoning and speed processing. Bunge concluded:
"All parts of intelligence are
malleable. They're all in the brain, and all of the brain shows plasticity".
Our
current generation of students is immersed in a technology that lures them
daily. It has added the element of immediate gratification in the sphere of
stimuli for children, and schools are contending with this wave of information
management and attentiveness to rapid information flow of social media blurbs
and texting. It is my opinion that educators should take advantage of the amusement
element of card, board, and video games since they validate students through
continuous feedback, cooperation, attentiveness, and transference of knowledge.
Find suitable games online or devise one from a template. Build a collection
over the years and have a tool that will stimulate greater assimilation of
content and higher thinking skills.
Bunge, S., Mackey,
Hill, Stone, (May 2011). Differential
effects of reasoning and speed training in children, Developmental Science, Volume 14, Issue 3, pages 582–590.
photo: PlaSmart Inc Flickr
photo: PlaSmart Inc Flickr
