Most of the children play video games on their phones or tablets during the breaks at school. Is it really such a bad thing? Anything can be used for the good and for the bad purposes, that can also be applied to the use of the technologies. It is hard to judge the children if their parents are stuck at the computers or tv screens the whole evening, says K.Vasiliauskas. Not many are actually analyzing the logic and the purpose of the video games. However, if you have a mentor or a teacher, a video game can bring lots of benefits.
Nowadays children are living in two different worlds – the real one and the virtual one, which, for them, is incredibly attractive. As they spend so much time at school, learning reading, writing and being conscious about themselves and others, they also should be taught to use technologies, as they are a big part of our lives.
This encouraged us to upgrade the learning modules in our school. In the virtual world, children are used to a large amount of extremely visual information and gaming elements, which we can see in the video clips and computer games that children use. In the virtual world lessons we have created, the main idea is that real life is the most interesting game we can play. Therefore, all the lessons learned in the virtual space must return to reality, and the skills acquired in them must be applied.
Some games like Minecraft and RoBlox are teaching important problem solving skills, how to divide the big tasks into the smaller ones and how it can be transferred into the real life – using the vocabulary of the video games (i.e. quest) also the tasks of real life, like cleaning a room, can become a playful activity, if divided in smaller missions – pick up toys, organize the table. It is also important to promise an adequate reward.
It is important to keep the balance everywhere, even when it comes to video games. As for the partens, I wish them to not rush to deny and ban everything, even if it seems like the biggest nonsense to you. Try to be empathetic, ask the child to explain to you and listen sincerely. The biggest thing that modern children are hungry for is their parents’ attention, listening, and being interested in what they do every day, – concludes K. Vasiliauskas.
Based on the interview with Kristijonas Vasiliauskas, the supervisor of the Content Department of the Robotics Academy.