Contents 1 Video Games Promote Health 2 Smoking Prevention - "Rex Ronan" 3 Learning through Video Games 4 Bibliography

Video Games Promote Health

Video games can be used in a positive way. Game developers have developed games which promote health and provide information to children and adolescents. Such games have the ability to capture and keep the players attention and allow them to interact with the information in a meaningful way (Dorman, 1997). An example of a game which graphically portrays the physiological effects of smoking is ‘Rex Ronan’. This game is intended to strengthen preadolescents’ (ages 10 to 12) antismoking attitudes and their intentions not to start smoking (Lieberman, 2001). Game developers are now also creating games to help people relax, learn proper nutrition, overcome phobias, and even help children cope with attention deficit disorder (ADD). More research is needed to establish just how useful the new generation is in promoting better health. And many doctors say the games’ effectiveness in treating anxiety and ADD has not been studied long enough for the results to be reliable.

The annual Games for Health conference featured games promoting nutrition, self-awareness and medical skills.

Smoking Prevention - "Rex Ronan"

Rex Ronan is an experimental surgeon who shrinks to near-microscopic size, enters the body of his patient, and uses his laser scalpel to blast away the tar, phlegm, plaque, debris, and precancerous cells caused by years of smoking. Players move Rex Ronan through nine areas of the body, answer questions about the effects of tobacco, see realistic images such as arteries clogged with plaque and tar deposits in the lungs, and gain greater understanding of the effects of smoking.

Studies have found that children and teens who have the Rex Ronan video game available to play at home gain knowledge about specific ways tobacco can harm the body and they feel disgusted by the graphic images of these effects, and this strengthens their anti-smoking attitudes and their resolve not to start smoking (Lieberman, 2001).

Learning through Video Games

Researchers say video games have many attributes that help people learn:

• They activate prior learning, because players must use previously learned information to move to higher levels of play.

• Games provide immediate feedback in scoring and in visual and auditoriy stimulus, which allows learners to more quickly modify their learning strategies before the ineffective ones become entrenched.

• Skill transfer from games to real life is much more likely to occur.

• Motivation to learn new ideas or tasks is higher when games are used for most people (although some prefer to learn in traditional ways).

(Javid, 2004)

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Bibliography

Javid, Christine, (2nd August 2004) ‘Video games as effective health-care training Games for Health conference debuts in Wisconsin and stimulates debate’ Health Technology, [Online]. Availble: [Go to Article] Accessed 24th October