effects of learning with digital Games
Videogames are useful instruments for learning specific strategies and for acquiring knowledge; they also develop the learning that is characteristic of the culture of the information society, and this learning is likely to have long-term consequences. Games can be used to learn a particular content, but they may leave an impression (Salomon’s cognitive residue (Salomon, 2000) on the learners as well. Researchers are now investigating the types of learning that derives from the use of the videogames and their possible applications in other areas of study.
We should also remember that videogames have certain features of their own that distinguish them from other computer products. The content of the medium—as McLuhan (1994) says—is another medium, since many types of content in videogames introduce important modifications. To quote Provenzo (2000), “Videogames are a complex, rapidly evolving form to which most parents and adults pay relatively little attention” (p. 109).