If you are a teacher or parent who thinks that learning can ONLY come from an all knowing teacher or professor, standing at the front of the room in front of a podium, lecturing for hours on end, then yes, maybe buy this book. But if you are in any way open minded, have the smallest bit of respect for your children or students, or are even a little bit on board with the idea that yes, new forms of learning are, in fact, useful, even if they are difficult for some of us (older people--and I'm 28) to understand, then don't bother. This man clearly had a bad experience with public education--and most likely with his 'mommy' as well, and thinks that the only way to improve education is to throw out EVERYTHING old and allow students to make their own rules because, after all, they are smarter than us old folks. Nevermind how many degrees you may have, or how many years of life, job, or parenting experience you may have logged, Prensky feels you've got nothing on your eight year old son. My advice--save your money and your time, and just sit down and have a human conversation with your kids/students. You'll learn a lot more that way than you would reading this book--and come away with a much more positive attitude.

This book describes the difference in views about technology between generations. He compares the anti-game environment to the anti rock and roll feelings of previous generations. It is well written and easy to follow. Might hold more validity with more connection to research.

[this review will be published on Studies in Communication Sciences 1/2008 - www.scoms.ch]

Many kids and teenagers spend a large amount of time with videogames - that is a fact, and calculations indicate that by the time they are 21, average US children will have logged 5'000-10'000 hours playing computer and videogames. Add to this that videogames are impacting the entertainment market more and more as a multi-billion industry and you have plenty of good reasons to want to understand them better if you are a parent or a teacher. If you are a researcher in media, communication or education, and aim at understanding today's media use of digital natives, your work should include understanding video games, and this book can provide assistance in that area. So, are videogames good or bad? Do they enhance learning or do they make children numb and lonely?
After the hit of Digital Game-based Learning (2003), Marc Prensky comes back with a book that tries to give a new perspective to the often too polarized discussion about videogames. Prensky's voice is backed both by the insights of seasoned teacher used to talk with kids of all ages, and by the experience gained as founder and CEO of games2train.com, a company that offers "serious training in a game environment". It's a respected voice in the expanding context of the literature about education and digital games. Moreover, he is an emphatic speaker, with action movie rhythm, good arguments and sometimes claims. The book is worth reading: if you like videogames, you will understand them better; if you think they are dangerous, it will let you think about them more critically.
The book is mainly targeted to parents and teachers, but researchers can find interesting data, resources and ideas in it as well. Many claims are supported by anecdotal evidence, such as interviews with children or parents, only a few with scientifically sound data. This is both the limit and the power of this book: it is effective in showing that a different take on videogames is not only possible, but existing in the experience of many "like us", parents or teachers. The task of proving or refuting many of the claims remains for researchers and their respective methods.
The first point the author makes comes from the Socratic principle of knowledge: before knowing something, we must admit we don't know it. This holds for videogames too: much of the current discussion today comes from people who are not videogamers, and those who fear videogames often do not know even the titles of the big hits. Second, Prensky claims that today's kids are digital natives, while we, who were born in an age when digital media was not present of just surfacing, are digital immigrants. While we keep our "accent" (and for example print e-mails for reading), digital natives are "natural born" multitasking, online social kids. They consequently require, and like, new forms of learning, and videogames are clearly one of them. Because, and here is the third point, children learn a lot of things from videogames. On the one hand, current videogames are not all like Pong or Pac-Man, the trivial videogames that everybody knows. It's true, they are trivial, but games like Civilization III (a commercial game) or Carmen Sandiego (an educational game) are much more complex and engaging, and these are the game that today's kids want to play. With them, they learn to cooperate, reflect on ethics, start designing and programming (with modding, i.e., creating new games with existing games engines), and - claims Prensky - can even acquire the "seven habits of highly effective people" as identified by Steven Covey, including being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, first things first, etc. To support these claims the author relies also on the experience and work of James Paul Gee, who wrote What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (2003).
Up to here the book can look like an apology of videogames - and indeed there is some merit in bringing the discussion down to the ground and proposing and discussing real arguments. But the one more step that Prensky proposes is more challenging. Part IV is entitled "How Parents, Teachers and all Adults Can Get In The Game", which means: "Leave all universal theories aside, your problem is dealing with your kids or your students." And here it is all about method.
The author indicates some simple things that parents and teachers can do to reach one important goal: living the videogame experience together with our children, not leaving them alone with the media. It could be expressed as how you can create a relational and affective frame of meaning around videogames, so that the effort and energy spent on them is turned into positive educational agency. We know from research on the effects of television how important this is - what we didn't know was how you can actually do it with videogames. Prensky does not tell us how to do it, he first does it, and then tell us how he did it. I had the pleasure of attending a keynote speech at the Association for Educational Communications and Technologies convention in October 2007. After giving the talk, Prensky had five teenagers come on the stage and spent another hour just talking with them, asking them about their experience at school, with friends, with computers. Videogames were simply a part of their life, and he was recognized as an adult with whom you can talk about these things.
The main principles for "getting in the game" are starting to learn something about videogames, and then asking real questions and listening with real interest. The point is sharing with kids what is already part of their experience and has, indeed, positive aspects in terms of learning, even in the broader sense of education. The real issue, which emerges multiple times throughout the book, is finding a balanced style of life: blending sports, school, outdoor activity, handwork and computers in a sensible way. This is where adults can really make a difference. Videogames are bad if they become the tyrant activity of a child's life, but then they are as bad as reading 6 hours a day, or regularly watching TV for that amount of time. Additional resources about this can be found on the companion web site http://www.GamesParentsTeachers.com/
The book is challenging in two ways: intellectually, because it pushes to reflect on videogames from a richer base of data and experiences; and emotionally, because it prompts to take actions, as parents or teachers, in order to "get in the game" with kids and make sense of that experience. Some points raised in the book deserve a critical approach. First of all, are digital natives really different persons? Do they really learn differently? Of course, their media environment is different from the one we experienced, but it is likely there is no straight line between before and after. Also, different media environment generates different learning practices - but a new way of learning? Another issue concerns the change that videogames should bring in educational institutions. Prensky goes far and envisions - more to challenge than to propose - a completely different school system. That's more vision than reason, and while teachers can surely learn from videogames (and games), we might also ask ourselves what is the good in the current school system, and try not to throw the baby out with the water. Finally, the book brings evidence that videogames can produce positive learning effects and that they are not "evil". A good question to ask then, as with any media use, is what are children not doing in order to find time for videogames? That is, videogames can bring good things, but are they better than what is left aside?
If you are interested in videogames - and if you have any kids or teenagers around you, you should be - this book can provide not only food for thought, but also a challenge to go one step further than you would normally go, as parent, teacher, or researcher.

Can any good come from video games? Aren't video games the enemy? Should we believe all the negative hype about video games? Mr. Prensky, one of the leading authors in this exciting field of study, convincingly outlines what parents and teachers can learn from video games. This book is an easy and enjoyable read. As a parent and an educator, there is a lot I can learn from video game design. Mr. Prensky outlines numerous suggestions, ideas, and strategies that are applicable to both parents and teachers.

I was introduced to the author's work on Digital Natives by a very smart and unusually open-minded colleague at the National Geospatial Agency, and I am hooked as well as relieved.



The greatest complement I can give this book is that my 15-year old, a master of Warlock, saw this book come in the door and immediately took it away from me and read it overnight. He gives it high marks.



This is also the book that inspired me to take Serious Games and Games for Change *very* seriously. Most gamers do not understand the need to work toward an EarthGame that includes actual budgets and actual science, but Medard Gabel of BigPictureSmallWorld gets it, and that's enough for me.



The list of games provided at the end by the author, to create a serious game home learning environment, is priceless. Some may be overtaken by events but the bottom line is that digital learning is vastly superior to rote learning in schools.



I am a participant in three Hacker communities--Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) based in New York, Hac-Tic based in Amsterdam, and Hackers/THINK based in California. I have met thousands of hackers over the years, and I am certain that the best and the brightest are not those with straight A's in the current school system, but those that tune out the high school regime by their junior year, and start learning what they want to learn on their own. My oldest son just won first prize in the Fairfax County digital music content, representing his school, but he will not graduate because he refuses to spend time on Algebra 2. He has very high SAT scores, will pass the GED with an almost perfect score, and will take digital music and digital art courses at three colleges in the DC area as a non-degree candidate. I go on at length here because this is both very personal for me, and also a national disaster--our entire curriculum is so out of date, and taught by so many drones, the few master teachers not withstanding, that I completely understand why our national ranking in math and science is out the window, why we have fallen to 7th on the national innovation scale, behind three Nordic countries and three Asian countries.



I admire this author. In a most positive manner, he is telling us the Secretary of Education is quite naked, and what we can do about it. This is a foundation book for any parent of "digital natives."

I was introduced to the author's work on Digital Natives by a very smart and unusually open-minded colleague at the National Geospatial Agency, and I am hooked as well as relieved.

The greatest complement I can give this book is that my 15-year old, a master of Warlock, saw this book come in the door and immediately took it away from me and read it overnight. He gives it high marks.

This is also the book that inspired me to take Serious Games and Games for Change *very* seriously. Most gamers do not understand the need to work toward an EarthGame that includes actual budgets and actual science, but Medard Gabel of BigPictureSmallWorld gets it, and that's enough for me.

The list of games provided at the end by the author, to create a serious game home learning environment, is priceless. Some may be overtaken by events but the bottom line is that digital learning is vastly superior to rote learning in schools.

I am a participant in three Hacker communities--Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) based in New York, Hac-Tic based in Amsterdam, and Hackers/THINK based in California. I have met thousands of hackers over the years, and I am certain that the best and the brightest are not those with straight A's in the current school system, but those that tune out the high school regime by their junior year, and start learning what they want to learn on their own. My oldest son just won first prize in the Fairfax County digital music content, representing his school, but he will not graduate because he refuses to spend time on Algebra 2. He has very high SAT scores, will pass the GED with an almost perfect score, and will take digital music and digital art courses at three colleges in the DC area as a non-degree candidate. I go on at length here because this is both very personal for me, and also a national disaster--our entire curriculum is so out of date, and taught by so many drones, the few master teachers not withstanding, that I completely understand why our national ranking in math and science is out the window, why we have fallen to 7th on the national innovation scale, behind three Nordic countries and three Asian countries.

I admire this author. In a most positive manner, he is telling us the Secretary of Education is quite naked, and what we can do about it. This is a foundation book for any parent of "digital natives."

Marc Prensky has a lot to say to those of us who are actually open to the ideas he presents --- that our kids are a lot smarter than we are, that they are learning at mach speeds, and that the old-fashioned method of providing them with guidance still works, as long as we know when to get out of their way!!!! I happen to homeschool my 9 year old son, but put his older brother through regular public school... Both of these boys are doing well, but I was worried about the amount of time that they spent on "video games", versus 'pure academics'. My 9 year old also wouldn't learn to read until this year, because he wasn't 'interested'. Now, he's past his grade level, and he's motivated by wanting to do well on his 'games'. In fact, the more 'games' he plays, the more academically inclined he becomes. He likes Homeschool because he likes to learn fast, & in regular school they wanted him to learn slow... Mr. Prensky's book puts this type of brain-wiring into a context that I can not only comprehend myself, but which I find easy to relate to other parents who have similar concerns. It's nice to have a source stating what we'd sort of figured out on our own --- these kids will learn, if we stay out of their way!!!

so cruel and yet so just that one must grow or else pay more to remain the same," wish I could say I said it first but some eight would get on line and discover it was Norman Mailer in _Deer Park_.I found it in a Playboy magazine interview too many years ago to remember.
Having said that and confessing my memory for quotes is not that great allow me to say this work has awaken feelings of insercurity in me I never knew I had. Having been a teacher for the past thirty five years I find it totally unacceptable that students are now coming into class with more knowledge at their fingertips than my brain has collected in the past sixty five years...how dare they and I thought there was just a pandemic of hearing impaired young people who were required to ware a blue "ear."
Now I know and will continue my crusade against plagarism and students obtaining unauthorized information at all cost.
Margaret Mead talked about "prefigurative learning"; where learners teach those who are teaching them and now we have games that do the same thing. And I simply love, love, love and love the idea. I love the notion that an old reprobate like myself must conjure up the humility to ask these learning people to show me how to work a cell phone, pc, wireless, ipod, gpd,digital camera and all the other things I run into that I know nothing about.
Although I feel like an anachronism I keep on going and I love that I do.
For educators a book should be penned entitled "Bother me students and help me learn."
I firmly believe that all teachers who started teaching before Moore's Law was uttered will be obsolete in the next decade. If we do not adapt to change and at least attempt to learn the way out charges do then both of us will be the lesser for it.
It's so sad that so many of us educators are reactionary and insist that all this is just some kind of fad and that the Queen's English will be proforma once again and we can forget about digits other than to know they are fingers. It ain't going to happen guys anymore than we start rapping like Chaucer.

Prensky offers a succinct and well-rounded discussion concerning the potential of computer games as learning tools. His assertion that, children are already learning from computer games - that parents and educators alike need to tap into this motivation for learning - is well supported by a wide variety of examples, from specific games to the testimony of parents and educators. The uncomplicated language makes for easy reading and the practical advice to parents is enthusiastic and practical.
The use of the work of James Paul Gee is influential in offering an academic perspective on the discussion. It would have been interesting to see connections between Prensky's work, that of Gee and yet more theorists and reserchers in the area, including, for instance, Catherine Beavis.
The supporting online material is useful in assisting parental comprehension and offers some practical guidance and steps to improving personal pedagogies in the home. The strength of Prensky's text is through the manner in which he breaks down the nature of learning across the spaces of home and school, public and private, education and entertainment. His discussion is an optimistic design for the future, which deals successfully with objections to computer games, and is founded on strong research. This results in important and useful ideas and guidelines for the future of learning.
If you are a parent of educator in particular, this book offers a practical and flexible first-step in the complex world of computer games and "digital natives". Another productive and insightful read from Prensky.

Marc Prensky has done a wonderful job of writing this book. I feel that it is a book that should be read by every single parent on the planet if they are to have any hope of understanding why children find video games so captivating.

The book presents a highly organised case for the incorporation of video games into schools to engage children more effectively. It is a vital resource for academics interested in games-based learning and has a wealth of links to relevant literature in the field. The book is particularly relevant to people that grew up in the 1980's as they can relate to the parental distrust of video games and also benefit from the academic value.

The book is crammed with real life case studies including contributions from James Paul Gee - one of the leading experts in games-based learning and author of "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Literacy and Learning". Very interesting features include the five levels of learning in video games with three interesting case study examples including Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City, San Andreas (a very controversial video game), the use of mobile phones as a suitable research tool, the discussion about violence in video games and the section on learning - particularly neuroplasticity.

This is a work that the Marc Prensky should be highly proud of and is highly thought provoking for parents, teachers and academics alike. The book has excellent cross referencing between chapters and has a wealth of cited literature, which is readily available on-line at the books accompanying websites. The work is delivered in a gradual, entertaining manner that is highly enjoyable to read.

Well worth the price - they should charge double for such an excellent read.

This is a book I feel all parents should read. Though I'm what Prensky would call a "digital immigrant," my accent isn't too thick. I may be nearing 40, but I got involved with computers as they came around and have never been afraid of technology. Gaming, Internet, etc.--I love it all. And, despite the fact my gaming time has reduced as I've gotten older, I've never really understood the hysteria over computer games.

For parents, this book is a great primer about video & computer games. It makes a case for why these games benefit children but, more importantly, it explains a lot of the gaming & computer jargon and gives examples of a lot of the popular software. If a parent really wants to make an effort to understand what interests their child about computers, this book is a great place to start. It also gives parents encouraging advice on how to connect with their children through these games.

I used to be quite a gamer myself (I leaned towards the strategy games like Civilization and Railroad Tycoon). After reading this book, I went out and bought Civilization IV (and The Sims for my wife) and rediscovered what I loved so much about them. Hopefully, when my children get to the age when they want to play computer games, I'll be able to participate with them on some level.

On the other hand, as a veteran teacher, I'm not convinced by some of his conclusions about the educational value of these games. I agree that these games are certainly not detrimental, any more than other "traditional" child pasttimes. (Any activity--reading, sports, etc.-- can be detrimental if done exclusively and to excess. As parents, it is our job to monitor all our child's activities and press them for moderation when we see them slipping into excess.) I agree that they can develop skills that are useful for children. I agree that technology & modern culture are rewiring our children's brains to be different and we must accept and deal with that (particularly teachers).

Still, I have yet to see a game that truly imparts curriculum in an effective manner. Civilization is a great game & offers great talking points to a history teacher but it cannot teach history effectively. Perhaps there will be truly dynamic games in the future that will teach curriculum well but, for all my support of technology, I see it as a tool, not as a guide. Like all tools, it can be used well or poorly but, as always, it goes back to the human hand that controls it.

But, despite these quibbles, I must give credit where credit is due: Prensky has written a very good book here. He opens our eyes to the importance of understanding these games. They are not going away and, with a little effort, both parents and educators can get a little more insight into young people today. Some of that effort should be put into reading this book.