How Day Z is Increasing Literacy

Day Z Standalone is not simply a video game that millions of people enjoy to play, but it is single handily responsible for increasing literary in youth. How have they done it? Well this title has spawned over twenty five million guides, tutorials and walk-through’s. These are not being penned by professional writers, but the very kids that are playing them. Day Z comes with minimal instructions on how the play the game. There is no tutorials or newbie guides that transpire, before you are thrust into the online world. You simply start in a random location on the map and are expected to learn by doing. How do you open a door or pickup a weapon or say hello to a fellow player? You have no idea unless you browse the command list or Google the question. Countless communities have risen to the challenge of educating the players on the various game play elements. Internet wide, there is currently over 323,000,000 articles written by youth. Many of them are reading above their current age level. Constance Steinkuehler, a games researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, asked middle and high school students who were struggling readers  to choose a game topic they were interested in, and then she picked texts from game sites for them to read—some as difficult as first-year-college language. The kids devoured them with no help and nearly perfect accuracy. According to a recent article in Wired Magazine, Hannah Gerber, a literacy researcher at Sam Houston State University monitored several 10th-grade students at school and at home and saw that they read only 10 minutes a day in English class—but an astonishing 70 minutes at home as they boned up on games. School libraries are starting to realize that game guides written by major publishers are being devoured at record levels. Scholastic recently released three new Minecraft illustrated books that librarians report they can't keep on the shelves. The books, aimed at kids in Grades 3 through 7, have already sold more than 6 million copies combined since their release in November. Librarians noticed that kids were again were reading far above their level. The books not only appeal and fascinate children, they encourage kids to become better readers so they can learn more tricks to get ahead in Minecraft. Currently, DayZ encourages nothing; it’s absolute freedom, absolutely. Two million active players are currently participating in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, so you could speculate there is some sort of allure. In the end, more kids are reading because of games like this and reading above their age level. That certainly is a good thing. How Day Z is Increasing Literacy is a post from: Good e-Reader

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