How the Nintendo generation learns

Abstract

Recently, I was chatting with my son, Daniel 1991 about Nintendo. I asked him if he could bring it in to school for show and tell and he was horrified! “No,” he exclaimed, “that's not for learning.” Well, what do you, dear reader, think about that? Is Nintendo for learning? No one is watching/listening … go ahead … admit it … You don't really like Nintendo. (Of course, when you play Tetris, that is exercising problem-solving skills. Right.) And, afterall, you didn't use all that technology in school, and you learned just fine. So, why do “kids these days” need all this new multimedia technology, anyhow? That technology just makes it fun and easy to learn—it's just glitz. And as for calculators..... © 1991, ACM. All rights reserved.