Do online, brain challenging games make us smarter? I believe these games do the opposite as I discovered after I did a 3 month self test.
Screenshot (c) Oakever Games
The game creators claim it increases your brain power, quicker thinking skills and designed for the smartest brains. It's supposedly incredibly challenging too so I didn't play my usual scrabble game with my partner for three months but played this game on my mobile phone instead. After a few weeks my eyes saw words faster, my fingers swiped quicker and my brain was computing three and four letter words in my sleep causing restlessness and feeling more tired by the day.
Interestingly enough after three months I thought I was a champion and challenged my partner to a hard-core boardgame of Scrabble once again. Now I never lost a game yet so the challenge was on...
It didn't take long for me to realise that my vocabulary had slipped my brain and those confounded seven letters (out of the hundred) on my tilerack created severe stress.
Was I lied to! Absolutely and utterly...
Now education comes in many forms and we definitely need a variety of methods in order to learn sufficiently. We need this variety every week or maybe daily as hanging of online educational games definitely doesn't work. These games are great for relaxation and fun but books, pen and paper are still my number one educational tool.
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts...
The traditional concept of literacy was the ability to read, comprehend and write... which was considered effective for future life. However, I wonder if in this fast moving, jam-packed educational syllabus, we are really encouraged to properly read and write... especially with technology taking the classrooms, colleges and universities by storm.
@ingridontheroad/all-children-can-learn
The concept that one can learn and improve their educational standard using online games only is ridiculous. If one was to use this method and combine it with pen and paper resources such as those from Teaching Treasures Publications it would provide a different outcome.
https://www.teachingtreasures.com.au
Way back in January 2022 I contributed an article regarding online learning and set out six key points, or questions, in order to work out if one actually achieved learning results using online games.
These points were...
What did I learn?
Which Learning Outcome did it address?
Which activities enabled me to learn this?
How will I use the learning?
Why will the learning help in my development?
What references support my claims to the questions above?
If we cannot identify, analyse, synthesize and evaluate key outcomes of our learning objectives then our methods of teaching need to be re-addressed.
If for example my thinking skills actually became slower in response, less creative and more non-intellectual than before my online gaming experiment then the test went well and I have achieved a result. Perhaps not the result I expected but definitely an outcome that is worthwhile considering for future students and future teaching methodologies.
https://www.teachingtreasures.com.au/blog.php?blogPostId=3
In conclusion... I expected an outcome but didn't quite expect such a huge decline in personal knowledge so quickly. Keep learning my friends, keep improving your skills and don't forget to occasionally put down that mobile phone, ipad, or shut down your PC...
Photos and written work is my own unless specified otherwise.
©️ingridontheroad