Alum McGonigal on WUWF
BCNM alum Jane McGonigal was one of the main attractions at the Pensacola Mini Maker Faire, and was featured on WUWF, the local National Public Radio channel. McGonigal was interviewed by Bob Barrett.
From the interview:
“The main thing video games do, especially for young people, is they help us develop a ‘challenge mindset’, which means we are confident in our ability to learn new skills, to develop new strategies, to get better at things that we are not good at the first time that we try them. And this makes really intuitive sense. If you think about any game, it’s designed for you to be bad at it the first time that you try it, whether it’s golf, or chess or Fortnight. And playing a game is really about the pleasure of getting better. Of mastering new skills and exploring different strategies. And it builds both the confidence in your own ability to get better through your own effort and attention, but it also builds the neurological pathways that allow your brain to respond to challenge and stress in a more positive way. So that you’re not dealing with anxiety, you are actually feeling energized by the opportunity to do something that is hard and to do something that allows you to get better.”
Listen to the interview and more from WUWF here.