What Video Games and Technology Are Really Teaching Kids

So yeah, I read this week that picking your nose and eating it is good for you. It boosts your immune system.

I took great pleasure in telling my boys this. 

I had been told for the past 46 years it was bad for you and I have been dutifully passing on this message. I won't take up this habit but the boys will be boys and it will save me from telling them off for it.

Looking back, this post wasn’t really about nose picking at all. It was about how quickly technology was becoming part of childhood learning, creativity, and problem solving.

It got me thinking what else have we been told when growing up is bad for you but might be good. Living in our nanny state maybe boogies are not alone.

Questioning What We’re Told

Tv is bad for you? Son 2 (age 6) has a massive vocabulary. He got up the other morning and I asked him how he was and he responded with "fantastic" While helping me make my packed lunch he asked are the roots on the spring onions were "edible". I don't recall teaching him these words so can only assume it was the TV. He likes his TV. Pepa Pig has even taught him a bit of French... he announced one day "Bonjour Delphine donkey!". (I only know it was Peppa Pig as I have seen that episode) We have 3 TVs in the house and something is normally on. Mostly on demand these days, be it Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube.

Why Simulators Fascinated Me

My other son Son 1 (age 9) is a tractor daft. He asked for Farming Simulator 17 for his Christmas. It's a game that runs on the computer. Santa snuck in on Christmas Eve and installed it on the Mac in my study. Son 1 likes nothing better than doing a bit of farming. It's a very realistic 3D simulator. He has taught himself how to manage an entire farm. Buying the equipment, budgeting, sowing crops, and reaping the rewards from his harvest.

Children Growing Up With Technology

The tech in this game is brilliant. The 3D rendering and fully explorable maps are "awesome" (to quote Son 1. It even has a mud mod pack that simulates real mud across the farm so at the end of the day you have to wash your machinery with your 3D jet wash. It's certainly more realistic than any game I had growing up. I'm sure by the time Son 1 is old enough to work he will probably be able to run a profitable farm with little or no training. He has taught himself with this game how to farm and also gained a wealth of knowledge on tractors, combines, and other machinery, even to the point when we are out in the car we have to take the back roads if there is a chance of spotting some farm machinery.

So we are told computer games are bad for you!

All this farming doesn't really matter as Son 1 wants to be an Architect. Possibly inspired by Minecraft, another 3D simulator. Actually, if I remember right he wants to be a successful architect designing big buildings, and then when he is "rich" buys a farm and just does all the "cool tractor-type jobs".

So are these games a kind of training? A way of self-teaching. They seem to go hand in hand with YouTube too, where you watch a clip on how to do something on your farm and then recreate it.

Technology as a Learning Tool

Kids using iPads is also supposed to be bad for them. Mine both have iPads. Both with Military spec Griffin Defender covers. These are supposed to be tuff. Despite this, I have changed the screen on Son 1's three times. Not an easy job. Getting the glass off without destroying the wifi antenna is almost impossible. And those tiny screws I can nearly see them let alone pick them up. Thankfully parts are cheap on eBay. There are also many YouTube videos on how to change the screen.

Son1 and 2 are a dab hand at using the iPad it's almost second nature to them, in fact, it is. They don't remember a time before them. They learn so much from the apps. They can be driving trains, or identifying animals. playing with numbers, spelling, farming (more farming), being a doctor or dentist, there is even one app where you give Santa a shave.

As an aside, they are learning to install their own apps (free ones) and configure them, manage their memory space, and understand the need to recharge the battery.

Son 2 has Bluetooth headphones he uses with his iPad. He repeats the "Your Bluetooth device is connected" message every time they are turned on. He has destroyed many corded headphones by chewing the cable so wireless and Tech solve this problem.

I did try to introduce Son 2 to the flight simulator on the Mac. A step too far! It didn't go well. He likes pressing buttons. Perhaps he won't be a pilot.

Technology as a Learning Tool

So yeah I might not encourage eating bogies but I will let my kids embrace technology. If they are learning something it can only be good for them and set them up with valuable life skills.

What This Made Me Realise

A couple of coding books for kids arrived in the post this week. One for the new Raspberry Pi and one for Scratch. They are colourful with lots of pictures, so here's hoping I can take the boys back a step and show them what goes into their games, iPads, and YouTube. I'll let you know how I get on...

Looking back now, it feels obvious that games and simulators were becoming educational tools as much as entertainment.

Minecraft, farming simulators, YouTube tutorials, and creative apps were quietly teaching problem solving, systems thinking, planning, and creativity.

In many ways, kids were teaching themselves using technology long before schools fully adapted to it.

A lot of this also connects to my reflections on visual thinking and different learning styles.

The same fascination with interactive learning and systems also influenced projects like my browser-based text adventure game Redcastle.

Many of the same ideas around creativity, systems, and engineering also appear in my reflections on LEGO Technic and engineering mindset.

I’ve always been fascinated by how people learn through technology, creativity, and problem solving.

A lot of the same thinking now shapes the technical, systems, and digital work I still enjoy today.

You can find out more here.