The Classroom of Popular Culture

This article makes me think about my son, and how he loves to play his games. My son has X-box 360, Wii, Guitar Hero, Play Station, U-dance, and Nintendo DS. He can sit and play on all these systems hours at a time. However, being that I'm a concerned parent I don't allow him to do it! This is very common with most young people today, they love video games. I agree that if they could incorporate what is going on with the video games, into the classrooms, schools would probably close the achievement gaps. I have observed my son playing many of his games, and they are not easy to play. There are kids that play these same games and are able to master them, but are not able to sit still in a classroom and read for 30 minutes. What's going on? Well, the games are interesting. My son loves his X-box 360, one of his favorite games is WWE Smackdown vs. Raw. In this game you have over 40 wrestlers you can choose from and 20 different matches. You can create your own wrestler, change your skill level, create your own moves, and entrances to the ring. All of these things make this an enjoyable and challenging game for my son. Not to mention all the stuff you have to do with the control. All of these things require students to think, concentrate, read, and follow directions. Which in school, some of them act like that can't do any of the above. I think that we need to bottle the same devices that are being used in these video games. Maybe it would help students to become more disciplined learners in school.