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I got a feeling from people tonight that most people are kind of skeptical of the concept of edutainment. I think like most things these programs are great when used in moderation and when the context is being taken into consideration. I also think it’s incredibly important to allow children to play for the sake of playing. Children do not need to be actively learning at all times. When kids just play to play they learn, but that learning is usually social skills, play skills, or learning identity and self-knowledge. All of which should be given more credit than an academic approach usually does.
Okay so I got a Neopet. Honestly I quite like it, it’s fun and it has potential to teach children some valuable lessons when it comes to consumerism. I know there were a lot of concerns addressed in class, especially around the capitalist nature of the activity. I’m not denying that this is true, but I am wondering why it matters. Children see this in real life everyday and they are going to grow up into a world that is based on money. The sooner they learn the value of it and how it works the better. This ‘game’ is offering these kids very valuable skills when it comes to managing money. There is a bank where they can save money and collect interest, they can get jobs and earn money, they negotiate over the price of items, and can even open their own store and sell their items. I also found the game to be fairly gender neutral. Maybe I just didn’t see it, but it seemed not to focus on gender very much at all. What does everyone else think of that?
