Interactive Stories: Literacy in Video Games

When most people first hear the term literacy, the first term that comes to mind may be books and not video games. Despite this, there are many opportunities to children to engage in literacy practices while playing video games.

The Art of the Story

Much like a movie, many video games are like interactive stories. They have a rich and compelling plot, but allow the player to assume the role of a character (or characters). There are even opportunities where players can make choices that can impact the overall story and outcome of the narrative.

Learning

Video games have the ability to engage players and provide them with strong identities.  When playing video games, players learn to view the virtual world through the lens of a unique identity, an identity that could come from the game or one the player has built by themselves.

Thinking like a Scientist

Another form of learning video games provide is the ability to make the player think through cycles, like a scientist. When interacting in a video game, the player has to “hypothesize, explore the world, get a reaction, reflect on the results, and re-examine to get better results. Some games are designed to allow the players to be producers and not just consumers. Others lower the consequences of failure which encourages players to take more risks, explore, and try new things. The differing difficulty levels of video games allow the player to customize the game to fit their individual learning styles. These games provide players the opportunity to explore the consequence of their choices.

Overall, video games offer unique literacy and learning experiences for children to explore. To aid you in determining whether a video game is appropriate for your children, you can check out Common Sense Media or this article.