Times Online has a video and technical article about a new animation technique that results in lifelike animations:
Lifelife animation heralds new era for computer games
This story speaks for itself. Click the video or the link above to view the video and read the in-depth article on this new technology.
Categories: Technical
New studies show that video games may benefit students:
Studies: Video games may benefit students, surgeons
A post to the KARE TV News website today highlighted recent studies looking at video games and students. Findings came from the Boston American Psychological Association Convention. The studies show that playing video games can improve students’ problem solving skills and improve skills of laparoscopic surgeons. One study looked at the potential for World of Warcraft to improve scientific thinking.
“In one Fordham University study, 122 students in fifth, sixth and seventh grades were asked to think out loud for 20 minutes while playing a game they had never seen before. Researchers studied the children’s statements to see if playing the game improved cognitive and perceptual skills.”
“The younger kids are focusing more on their planning and problem solving while they are actually playing the game, while adolescents are focusing less on their planning and strategizing and more on the here and now,” said Fordham psychologist Fran Blumberg, who conducted the research last year and plans to submit it for publication. “They’re thinking less strategically than the younger kids.”
Even more interesting findings came from the studies of surgeons:
“The single best predictor of their skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now. Those were better predictors of surgical skills than years of training and number of surgeries performed,” Gentile said. “So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these (surgeries) have you done and the second question is ‘Are you a gamer?”
The article also looks at gamer conversations on game forums, and what the gamers are discussing.
“The vast majority of the discussion participants, 86 percent, shared knowledge to solve problems and more than half, 58 percent, used systematic and evaluative processes, researchers found.”
There was a dark side to playing certain video games:
“Other studies confirmed earlier research that found students who played violent games tended to be more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games. And those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were are greater risk of obesity.”
Jump to the full article for all the specifics about these studies and their findings.
Categories: Education · Media · Virtual Worlds
