Prensky suggests that digital natives have grown up multitasking, whether it be watching TV while doing homework or listening to music while interacting with a computer. And because of this, they are much more adapt and willing to parallel process. Their brains simply support it. Unlike prior generations, who are not as adept and are much more comfortable with the linear processing of information.
Published in Chapter:
Digital Propensity: An Investigation of Video Game and Information and Communication Technology Practices
Boaventura DaCosta (Solers Research Group, USA), Angelique Nasah (Solers Research Group, USA),
Carolyn Kinsell (Solers Research Group, USA), and Soonhwa Seok (The Center for Research on Learning—eLearning Design Lab, University of Kansas, USA)
Copyright: © 2011
|Pages: 26
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-495-0.ch052
Abstract
There is a growing interest among educators to use video games in the classroom as part of the curriculum to meet the educational needs of today’s students. This may be justified, in part, by claims in recent years about today’s technology-savvy students and their adept use of information and communication technology (ICT). However, such claims have not been accepted without scrutiny; indeed, the relationship between games and learning has been tempestuous over the years. This chapter sought to identify the gaming propensity of postsecondary students (N = 580) through the use of a questionnaire. Age, gender, and socioeconomic status were examined as factors that might explain why students play games. Results suggest that age, gender, and socioeconomic status are composite factors that contribute to gaming, but not the most important consideration in terms of general ICT usage. The findings raise a number of implications for educators, educational policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, instructional technologists, and game developers across both the education spectrum and the entertainment industry in terms of the use and development of video games.