HGSET545

Somewhere deep down in my rational brain, I knew the hole wasn't real - that it was a virtual reality scenario in a cramped office at Stanford University, where the floor seemed completely pit-free until I put on a clunky piece of hardware called a "headmount." But that headmount changed everything.

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Last year, Iowa State University researcher Douglas Gentile published a survey of American 8-to-18 year-olds which found 12% of boys were video-game addicted, having at least six symptoms out of 11, similar to a scale for gambling addiction. Yet only 3% of girls were video game addicts.

Robert Weis and Brittany C Cerankosky of Denison University measured a group of boys' academic baseline achievement and surveyed their parents and teachers as well. They then gave half the boys video-game units. Boys receiving the video-game stations experienced an academic nosedive. The control group of boys without video games continued with solid schoolwork.

"Sports for the Mind" teacher Al Doyle says his class helps students learn "systems thinking," understanding the relationships of parts to wholes.

When the students design their own games, they must incorporate the components of a system: goals, rules, and stakes. Eventually, says Doyle, students will learn the more complex aspects of a system, such as choice and balance, and build those into their games

The premise of using video games to engage students in advanced thinking is drawing more advocates.