Gaming for literacy

Is this learning or gaming as ‘babysitter’?

I recently had the pleasure of spending my holidays completing a full-time university Practicum at my local library.  To those of you who do not know, as a teacher-librarian in training, I am allowed secret entry to the hidden world of the librarian.  If any of you educators out there have ever wondered what goes on behind the library counter, I recommend enrolling in postgraduate study in this knowledge domain to find out.  Anyway, back to the story.  So, as part of the program that I negotiated with my lovely public librarians, I was able to take a couple of children’s holiday ‘activities’ (apparently this is public librarian speak for what we might call ‘lessons’).  One of these activities was designed to encourage the younger library patrons to use what was referred to as the “Children’s Databases”.  As a secondary teacher I was expecting perhaps a catalogue or actual database as one might have in a high school or academic library.  However the children I was to be teaching ranged from four to ten and the ‘database’ that we were using centred on age-specific literacy activities prepared by the company Intrepica.  For those in Australia who do not know this resource, it is freely available through most public libraries, and it uses a system of games and rewards to motivate students to engage in literacy activities.   According to personal communications from several of my primary teaching colleagues, this resource is also frequently used in this school context.  Essentially students sign up, work through a wide range of literacy activities to gain points and then ‘spend’ these points on their avatar.  There are virtual prizes and students are ranked according to their demonstrated ability.   It certainly seemed, in my observations of the children I introduced to this online resource, that this was a highly enjoyable way to master the components of literacy.  However, I would sound a word of warning to those who might choose Intrepica as they believe it is an educationally sound ‘babysitter’.  According to the recent research out of America (Common Sense Media, 2011), paediatricians stated that the oral language of children below the age of eight who overused media was often less developed than their peers who did not.  This of course has immediate implications for their long-term literacy development.

References: 

Common Sense Media. (2011).  Zero to eight: Chilren's media use in America.  A Common Sense Media Research Study.  Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-eight-childrens-media-use-america  Intrepica Pty. Ltd (2011).

Intrepica: A whole world of literacy.  Retrieved from http://www.intrepica.com.au/index.html