Kids got game

Three skills for an interconnected world

By Lori Warren

In their book Changing the Game, authors David Edery and Ethan Mollick describe “three skills for an interconnected world”—valuable lessons learned more easily from video games than from a traditional classroom setting. The three skills are working in teams, thinking in systems, and learning from virtual environments. I think this pretty much describes how my son and his two buddies took on Dollywood—which, if you think about it, is an interconnected world of rides and amusements.

Maybe there is a little stretch there. But an amusement park really is a lot like a 3-D game scenario. It has a virtual world of different paths, levels (rides accessible by height and age restrictions), and ride experiences that involve water, fire, velocity and physics. (Not that I know anything about physics.) I think the whole place was a great example of how the boys’ gaming skills transferred over into a real-life situation.
Let me start by telling you a little about the boys. All three are big gamers, and they are constantly collaborating and strategizing about their various Xbox, computer, Nintendo DS and Wii games. When we took the trip in May, they were finishing fifth grade, where they were all in the same class at school.
This virtual-turned-real-world experience began at the entrance of Dollywood, where all three boys grabbed a map of the park as they entered. By this action alone I could tell they had done their research. The other parents and I just listened as, drawing on information from fellow middle-school students and website research, the boys began to plan the sequence of rides that would rule our day and master every park experience.
Little did I know, until that moment, that they had mapped the day’s events—days ahead. There was no discord, no debate among these three friends. They had taken those virtual mapping skills and teamwork strategies and analyzed the rides, determining how to get the most enjoyment in the shortest amount of time. The other adults and I just let them lead the way. By the end of the day all three boys declared the trip a huge success.
We, the helicopter parents typical of our generation, enjoyed putting our controls on auto-pilot and into the hands of our children. We enjoyed every minute of our freedom and took this opportunity to chat and get to know each other. The dads joined in on some of the rides, and the other mom and I spent a lot of time talking and sharing stories of mothering this gamer generation