The Standard!
Parents, teachers and gamers need a standard for assessing the educational values of video games. Video game critics and reviewers tend to study the entertainment value and cognitive value while sites like [esrb.org] give ratings based on graphic content. Our society show concern with the impact of video game son the population by asking if video games cause violence. The question itself is too simplistic. The real queston is what are users learning from the experience of playing these games. There is no reliable assessment system that studies the moral content of a game, nor its educational properties.
I propose to analyse a series of video games for their cognitive and moral developmental properties. To demonstrate the structure of my analysis I will begin with basic games, and move my way up.
Games can be assessed on a variety of qualities. The current rubrics focus mainly on appropriateness of content, cognitive educational value and entertainment value. These are for the most part incomplete and unscientific.
Educational elements that I will focus on:
Culture: Individualistic vs. Group Oriented
Task Orientation: Active vs. Passive
Type of Learning:
-Information vs. Experience
-Cognitive
-Affective
-Psycomotor
Doctrine:
-Conformist vs. Dynamic
-Despotic, Oligarchical, Republican, Democratic, etc.
Some games will have qualities on both ends of the spectrum (ie: certain elements of the game will require individualistic approaches while others are group oriented.)
