Study: Videogames Don’t Lead to Nightmares

Here’s an article out of Canada by Shannon Proudfoot on new German research concerning children and media. Michael Schredl, over at the Sleep Laboratory at Germany’s Central Institute of Mental Health, led the study. The researchers found no correlation between subjects’ amount of videogame play and television watching with frequency of nightmares.

He and his team asked 250 students aged nine to 13 to log the number of hours they spent every day for a week on activities such as watching TV, playing computer games, reading or playing sports, and to list the programs they watched. They were also asked whether they remembered a dream from the previous night and what it was about.

The researchers were surprised to find there was no connection between nightmares and computer games or TV shows – including the police and crime shows that 14 per cent of the children said they watched regularly.

The paper was published in the journal Dreaming where the abstract is freely available. My take: this paper offers empirical weight against arguments critical of educational videogaming where opponents state videogames lead to negative consequences such as nightmares.

References:
Proudfoot, S. (2008, July 26). TV, video games not related to nightmares: study. The Vancouver Sun. [Online]. Retrieved July 29, 2008 from http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?
id=41fafa28-ddf9-4c95-9215-c7e08094a9a0

Schredl, M., Anders, A., Hellriegel, S., & Rehm, A. (2008). TV viewing, computer game playing and nightmares in school children. Dreaming, 18(2). 69-76. [Online]. Available: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord
&uid=2008-07366-001

Free Mind Exercising Games from FitBrains.com

Canada is now the third largest videogame producing country, overtaking Great Britain’s former position. Marke Andrews over at The Vancouver Sun reports on Vivity Labs, producer of FitBrains.com.

With mostly private money (from five hi-tech industry investors) and some public funds (Telefilm Canada, Industrial Research Assistance Program) behind it, Vivity Labs seeks to replicate the success of Nintendo’s popular Brain Age game, which is also aimed at greying boomers and seniors, and Electronic Arts’ Pogo, a game popular with boomer women. The company’s partners include Vancouver’s Michael Cole, who’s worked in the brain fitness field for the past seven years; Dr. Paul Nussbaum, an American clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in aging; and Mark Baxter, a Vancouver games developer … Prior to the launch, Cole has struck a deal with health magazine Prevention to put three Fit Brains games on its website, and another that licences Fit Brains games with Seattle casual video game site Big Fish.

The site offers nine games with a tenth on the way, aimed mainly at users 40 and over. The games focus on language, concentration, logic and spatial skills. The site will remain in open beta until August, when a monthly fee will be assessed for accessing advanced features of the site.

References:
Andrews, M. (2008, July 3). B.C. company takes aim at brain games geared for boomers. The Vancouver Sun. [Online]. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?
id=7dcc2a05-1825-4245-bbdf-b5ff786a30e3

UK games industry ‘dead man walking’. (2008, July 2). Politics.co.uk. [Online]. Retrieved July 3, 2008 from http://www.politics.co.uk/news/opinion-former-index/
opinion-former-index/uk-games-industry-dead-man-walking–$1229794.htm

Survey: Students Want Educational Games

Converge Magazine points out that students have expressed a desire for more educational videogaming in schools in the annual Speak Up Survey conducted by Project Tomorrow. Converge says the survey revealed:

… that online or electronic gaming is one of the technologies that students use most frequently, and that educational gaming is one of the emerging technologies that students would most like to see implemented in their schools. Yet, only one in 10 teachers has adopted gaming as an instructional tool.

The survey also found other disparities between students and teachers in expressed desires for online learning, school e-mail accounts, and mobile devices for learning.

The survey was impressive in scope, eliciting responses from schools in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and American Dept. of Defense schools abroad. In all, about 319,000 students were surveyed; 25,000 teachers; 19,000 parents; and 3,000 school administrators, including directors of technology. The online survey closed in December, 2007.

Lots of interesting data in this survey. The selected findings article makes for good reading.

References:
Speak Up 2007 for students, teachers, parents & school leaders: Selected national findings. (2008, April 8). Project Tomorrow. [Online]. Available: http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/National Findings Speak Up 2007.pdf

Canada Celebrates Videogame Boom

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada released a report recently on Canada’s videogame industry. The PDF of the report is here. Videogames bring in $1.5 billion, topping the domestic box office receipts in Canada by a factor of four. Here’s a neat quote from Vito Pilieci, writing in The Ottawa Citizen:

Based on Statistics Canada’s estimate of 37,591 software developers in Canada, the ESAC study means video game development would account for about 24 per cent of all Canadian software production.

Canada has become a hotbed of high tech development, especially in the videogame industry. I’ve blogged previously about the outstanding research efforts Canadian universities are fielding in the field of educational videogames. According to Pilieci, videogame leviathan Electronic Arts employs 1,600 people in the Great White North. Ubisoft employs 1,500 with plans to double that number within five years. Several Canadian provinces provide tax incentives to encourage high tech growth.

References:
Hickings, Arthur, Low Corporation. (2007, October). Entertainment software: The industry in Canada. Entertainment Software Association of Canada, Toronto, CA. [Online]. Available: http://www.theesa.ca/esa-whitepaper.pdf

Pilieci, V. (2007, October 17). Report confirms growth of game industry. The Ottawa Citizen. [Online]. Available: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/business/
story.html?id=5429abd8-66dc-49e1-9fc2-6d6c22edf0e1