Radio Iowa, IA
11-10-07
Researcher says violent video games teach violence
By Darwin Danielson
An Iowa State University researcher says violent video games can teach kids
to be more violent. Douglas Gentile studied nearly 25-hundred kids and found
students who played multiple violent video games actually learned through those
games to produce greater hostile actions and aggressive behaviors over a span
of six months
He says they studied elementary students, high school students, and college
students and found that kids who play multiple games actually are more
aggressive in the real world. Gentile is an assistant professor of psychology,
and discussed his findings with his father, who is a professor in New York.
In comparing notes, Gentile says they realized that video games use the same
techniques that really great teachers use. For example, he says a great teacher
will adapt the level of instruction to each individual learner, and will adapt the
pace of each individual learning. Gentile says good teachers also ensure that
students take an active part in the learning process.
There are other top teaching traits found in video games. Gentile says the "teach
for transfer" gold standard of education has teacher give problems in as many
contexts as possible so that students learn the underlying principle involved. He
says video games do that with many different variations.
Gentile says students learn the more violent behavior through these type of
teaching techniques in games -- but the same techniques can also work in good
ways. He says if the games portray "pro social motives" that don't involve fighting
people, then that also leads to the game players becoming more pro social.
Gentile says using the educational games is a good idea, but finding such games
isn't easy to do. Gentile says there's a real discrepancy between how much is
spent on entertainment software compared to what's spent on educational
software. For example, he says multiple millions of dollars was spend on the new
"Halo 3" game, while only about 10-thousand dollars is spent on most
educational software.
Gentile urges educators not to wait for more advancement in educational
software before using such technology with students in the classroom. A paper
on the research by Gentile and his father will be published in an upcoming
professional journal.