How family video game play promotes intergenerational communication, connection, and learning. Video games have a bad reputation in the mainstream media. They are blamed for encouraging social isolation, promoting violence, and creating tensions between parents and children. In this book, Sinem Siyahhan and Elisabeth Gee offer another view. They show that video games can be a tool for connection, not isolation, creating opportunities for families to communicate and learn together.
Like smartphones, Skype, and social media, games help families stay connected. Siyahhan and Gee offer examples: One family treats video game playing as a regular and valued activity, and bonds over
Halo. A father tries to pass on his enthusiasm for
Star Wars by playing
Lego Star Wars with his young son. Families express their feelings and share their experiences and understanding of the world through playing video games like
The Sims,
Civilization, and
Minecraft. Some video games are designed specifically to support family conversations around such real-world issues and sensitive topics as bullying and peer pressure.
Siyahhan and Gee draw on a decade of research to look at how learning and teaching take place when families play video games together. With video games, they argue, the parents are not necessarily the teachers and experts; all family members can be both teachers and learners. They suggest video games can help families form, develop, and sustain their learning culture as well as develop skills that are valued in the twenty-first century workplace. Educators and game designers should take note.
如何家庭視頻遊戲促進跨世代的溝通、連結與學習
視頻遊戲在主流媒體中有著不好的聲譽。它們被指責促進社交孤立、宣揚暴力，並造成父母與孩子之間的緊張關係。在這本書中，Sinem Siyahhan 和 Elisabeth Gee 提出了另一種觀點。他們展示了視頻遊戲可以成為連結的工具，而非孤立，為家庭創造了共同溝通和學習的機會。
像智能手機、Skype 和社交媒體一樣，遊戲幫助家庭保持聯繫。Siyahhan 和 Gee 提供了一些例子：有一個家庭將玩視頻遊戲視為一項定期且有價值的活動，並在《Halo》中建立了情感聯繫。一位父親試圖通過與年幼的兒子一起玩《Lego Star Wars》來傳遞他對《Star Wars》的熱情。家庭成員通過玩《The Sims》、《Civilization》和《Minecraft》等視頻遊戲來表達他們的感受，分享他們的經歷和對世界的理解。一些視頻遊戲專門設計用來支持家庭圍繞現實世界問題和敏感話題（如霸凌和同儕壓力）進行對話。
Siyahhan 和 Gee 基於十年的研究，探討了家庭一起玩視頻遊戲時學習和教學是如何進行的。他們主張，在視頻遊戲中，父母不一定是教師和專家；所有家庭成員都可以同時是教師和學習者。他們建議視頻遊戲可以幫助家庭形成、發展和維持他們的學習文化，並培養在二十一世紀職場中被重視的技能。教育工作者和遊戲設計師應該注意這一點。
Sinem Siyahhan is Assistant Professor of Educational Technology in the School of Education at California State University, San Marcos, and Founding Director of Play2Connect.
Elisabeth Gee is Delbert and Jewell Lewis Chair in Reading and Literacy and Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.
