Gaming is the new reading!

Image by Robin Hutton

I really like the research conducted by The Reading Agency about gaming and its relationship to literacy. Although the report is looking at engaging adults with low literacy in reading for pleasure the concept could easily transfer to support gaming within the educational context. This is timely and important and has forced me to think about whether this is a service I should be offering in a school library.

The round table discussion on the report is below:

America seems to be ahead of the UK in research about gaming in libraries. Nicholson found that most US public libraries support gaming, but his definition of gaming was inclusive of old and new technology, from scrabble to console games. The primary reason given for supplying games was to provide entertainment for users and as a promotional activity it was seen to increase the profile and widen the use of the library.

Information is being gathered by Sarah McNichol on the state of gaming and UK libraries. In order for school libraries to embrace this we need sound evidence of the way gaming contributes to literacy. Not being a game player I find it hard to judge how much reading goes on within games. What I do know is that it is reading volume which contributes to good vocabularies and general knowledge and cognitive skills. Anything which helps to create avid readers is good for the development of literacy and a wide range of cognitive skills. Anything which widens the perception of what reading is and contributes to enjoyable reading experiences has got to be good.

Take a look at Inanimate Alice described as a new media fiction.

An example of a less high tech reading game from The Library of Congress is The Exquisite Corpse Adventure. The history behind this is explained here:

Looks like an interesting resource, with audio, which could be used in many ways.