Don T Bother Me Mom ! By Marc Prensky: Book Analysis

Game on
The following book synthesis discusses some of the ideas, thoughts and questions raised in two books – Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning! by Marc Prensky. It focuses on the main idea that both books have in common, continues with discussion of games and meaningful learning, and integration of games in the learning process.
Overlapping idea in both books
As previously mentioned, an overlapping argument could be found in both Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning! by Marc Prensky. Both authors maintain that playing games is beneficial for children’s success, their learning and the development of important skills needed for survival in the 21st century real life.
Little
Marc Prensky introduces the positive effects of playing computer games for children. His main argument is that games are powerful but also engaging tools for learning skills essential in everyday situations. Mark Prensky quotes a book called Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever in which the author John C. Beck describes the qualities of gamers and why gamers are better business
He often listens to and uses the helpful advice and suggestions given to him by his friends (Ange, Joly) and other like-minded people (Dr. Eeevil, Zeb) who try to assist him in his war against DHS. This is another advantage of playing games. Multiplayer games usually require collaboration between players. Whenever M1k3y makes a decision, he carefully weighs its pros and cons and tries to foresee its possible outcomes and predict the eventual outcome. The moment M1k3y realizes something about his strategy that needs to be changed, he makes a decision (with or without external help) and takes the initiative in his own hands. For example, after his talk with his dad about Bayesian analysis Marcus realizes that the Xnet is in danger because of its users’ abnormal encrypted traffic. He also understands his personal responsibility to the Xnet users and the fact that he has put their lives in jeopardy. This does not frustrate him, though. On the contrary, he immediately decides to take action. “I was going to fix it some other way”, he says (Doctorow, 2008, p. 113). As Dr. Carol Dweck describes it in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Marcus has a growth mindset towards his intelligence and the challenges he faces. This is one of the positive results of his long career as a gamer. Making decisions in a complex game like the Harajuku Fun Madness has already prepared M1k3y