Since the advent of simple gaming systems like Atari and Nintendo, children have been obsessed with playing video games. I started out with an Atari and made it all the way to the Xbox 360 before I gave gaming up at the age of 20.

Over the last three decades, educators have been experimenting with gaming as a pedagogical tool and using it to get students to engage with the teaching and learning process. Many educators and neuroscientists have gone as far as decrying that playing video games makes children smarter. In my opinion, the jury is still out on this, but playing games do have positive effects on children.

Today, I ran across a video that makes the case that games help students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, in addition to teaching them to multitask. The speaker makes the case that 5 activities have been shown to increase intelligence, and video games contain them all. I don’t know about you, but for me, that is fascinating news. I guess this is the reason that all of the guys on the tv show ‘The Big Bang Theory” are so smart. Sheldon, I finally get you. Check it out and tell me what you think.