At a session of video games at the ONA 2007 conference, Marc Prensky, made a plea to the journalists in the room to change how games are viewed.

His argument is that games are a powerful learning tool and they have developed at an amazing rate -we’ve gone from Pong to Halo 3 in 35 years.

As Prensky pointed out adults – parents, teachers – are ignorant and scared of games. They simply don’t understand this new form of media as they did not grow up with them.

This is major issue. Many adults just think that games are all about blasting aliens. Prensky recalled how 20 publishers rejected his book, “Don’t bother me mom, I’m learning”, telling him that no one wanted to read a book that is positive about games.

But Prensky is right to say that games are producing learning with engagement. Games help children learn not just what to do, but also work out why they should do it and whether they should do it. In multiplayer games, youths also learn to work with others.

“Games are most engaging intellectually”, says Prensky, pointing out that doctors, lawyers or chief executives who played games growing up make for better professionals. One study showed surgeons who played video games growing up make 37% fewer mistakes, said Prensky.

Unfortunately, there is a still a major issue with the public acceptance of games. And the media is partly responsible for this. How many times have you read a story about how games are turning kids in gun-toting maniacs?

But violent games account for a tiny percentage of the amount of titles out there. Only 8% out of 1,300 titles rated by the ESRB in the US received a Mature rating for 17 years and older.

So let’s move on and talk about how games can help people learn.