Are Online Games Helpful or Harmful to Kids?

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For researching educational online games, I found an article from the British Journal of Educational Technology titled Online Gaming as an Educational Tool in Learning and Training. Online gaming for education is becoming more popular and widely used in schools. In school, it allows the children to be more interactive and teachers to teach more thoroughly. Motivation and engagement in students has increased with the use of gaming.

I cannot argue with the positive results that have been found while using online games. I would have to say that educational online games can be very helpful to education... But I still do not see the necessity of students gaming rather than learning from books, experiments, and teaching. I don't know if I could defend saying that it is harmful to students, but I don't think it is always beneficial. Much of the time spent in school now seems to revolve around technology and discovery learning. These are necessary components of preparing them for the world after school, but so is book work, memorization, rote, and learning how to respect and learn from direct instruction! There is less direct interaction, and children are not as accustomed to listening to a teacher. University professors are surprised with the current trend of students texting, emailing, and facebooking during class. This should come as no surprise, because they are now being encouraged to discover things on their own, and encouraged to do everything with technology devices. In grade school, they don't have to sit silently and respectively... they aren't expected to be as disciplined as in the past. I was brought up in a highly disciplined environment, and am accustomed to being respectful and engaged when someone is teaching me. I can learn from just reading a book... but many people I know say they get nothing out of listening to a teacher or studying a book- they need a computer. I am one of the few that believe these changes to be unfortunate!