Can Online Gaming Be Educational?

This week for class, I watched a video of 13-year old, Lewis Tachau, talking about how online gaming has helped his communication, cooperation, and socialization skills.  Here’s the video below:

Tachau explains that the game he plays, “World of Tanks,” made him interested in World War II and began to learn about tanks, like the ones that he played in the game, and their part in the war. Tachau spewed facts about the tanks’ advantages and disadvantages in the war, how tanks were used, their strategies in battles, how they are hard to make, and so on. It’s interesting to see that from playing an online game such as this, that a kid Lewis’ age, can become interested in a subject and take upon himself of reading about it. Lewis also then explains the socialization skills of this online game.He connects with other kids who have the same interests, personality and thoughts.

With that in mind, should libraries incorporate more of these online educational games for children? Are they beneficial? Can children really learn from them? And develop these kinds of skills that Lewis did in his presentation?

I’m no expert in games or any sort of video games at all. I remember when I was a kid in elementary school and playing Zoombinis during computer class. With no knowledge of what kinds of educational games are out there, my teacher posted links to three online educational games: Webkinz, Penguin Club, and Moshi Monsters. Webkinz is an online game where you can adopt and take care of a pet, while playing educational games, puzzles and activities. Penguin Club is where they explore different islands, play activities and socialize. Moshi Monsters is just like Webkinz, but taking care of a monster! What I find important of these games is that the moderators stress for a safe and fun environment. The social chat and interaction is closely moderated and restricted to provide a safe space for kids for online chatting. These kinds of games would be fun to have at libraries I think! I think these kinds of games could serve the purpose of both having fun and learning.

It also introduces kids to an online network and communication for the first time. Since this will be a new experience for them, it’s good for the games to be moderated. Also, it will prepare them to use social media in a couple year’s time!

What do you think about online educational gaming? Good or bad for kids? Should libraries use them?

Uses for Social Media Other Than Marketing

For this blog post, I want to address the question: “What can information professionals do with social publishing tools other than marketing?”

Social publishing tools, such as blogs and Twitter, are great to market a businesses’ brand, services, products and content.

For information professionals, social media is ideal for marketing their organization. Such as librarians marketing their library’s services, materials, events and programs. Could libraries use these social media publishing tools for personal use? For example, librarians can create blogs and have different staff members post something that is thoughtful, creative or personable. A staff member can comment or post about a book they recently enjoyed, or a book that they disliked. Other topics could include music, movies and TV shows, or respond to news related to literature or other information organizations.

On Twitter, information professionals can share or retweet news from major information organizations like New York Public Library, Library of Congress or the Smithsonian. Librarians can share tweets of exciting news, promotions or facts. For example, Library of Congress usually tweets “Today in History. Librarians can retweet this to their followers for them to see.

Information professionals can also use social publishing tools for education means. Librarians can post facts and interesting tidbits. But importantly, information professionals can offer how-to’s and instruction guides on how how to use a library catalog or database, or how to search for an article. Librarians can post tutorials for students of how to write a paper, how to use citations or how to read an academic paper. For adults, librarians can post tutorials on how to use devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Androids.

With social media, to reach your audience, sometimes you have to think outside the box!