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Education Opinion

Video Games the Villain?

By Richard Whitmire — August 05, 2011 1 min read
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Perhaps not. Perhaps just the opposite, says Penn State education professor Allison Carr-Chellman.

From the article:

University Park, Pa. -- Studies during the past decade have shown elementary school boys are struggling -- falling behind academically while also being diagnosed with learning disabilities and getting in trouble at school at far greater rates than girls. One answer to the problem, says a Penn State education professor, may be video games. "Instructional technology is my field, thinking about how to adopt technology properly in classrooms," said Alison Carr-Chellman, department head and professor of instructional systems in Penn State's College of Education. "One of the reasons I'm interested in video games is because it meets boys where they are. It picks them up with an interest they already have. If you move in that direction you're saying, 'This culture accepts who you are,' rather than saying, 'This culture is foreign from yours and rejects who you are.' " Carr-Chellman grew up in a family of mostly girls with strong beliefs in girls' ability to achieve anything and the need for an emphasis on their education. So when her own twin boys entered elementary school, she was surprised at the negative experiences they and other boys their age had in the education system. "Just from my own initial experience, I looked more and more into the issues that were facing boys in the classrooms," Carr-Chellman said. "I started reading about it, doing more research and talking to people about it and I found out that it is a significant and serious problem. We're in danger of losing an entire generation of boys."

And while we’re on this topic.

The opinions expressed in Why Boys Fail are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.