Playing computer games can boost a student's school performance and should be incorporated into classroom activities - but the same can't be said for social media which does teenagers few favours, a study has found.
![Alberto Posso found playing video games regularly has academic advantages.](/web/20161014001510im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/n/o/x/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqnbhc.png/1470691314906.jpg)
Economist Alberto Posso from RMIT used OECD test results and information on the amount of time students spent in the digital world to measure the impact computer gaming and social media had on 15-year-olds' performance in maths, science and reading.
Perhaps not surprisingly, social media was outed as a pastime with little return on investment.
![The study suggests schools should incorporate video games into their teaching techniques.](/web/20161014001510im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/n/r/o/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqnbhc.png/1470691314906.jpg)
Teenagers who used Facebook or chatted daily scored 20 points below their fellow maths students who never used social media, and it was a similar story with reading and science.
But playing video games regularly had academic advantages, most notably for science students who picked up 17 points above the average score.
Associate Professor Posso said this was perhaps because games such as Minecraft were an opportunity for students to apply and sharpen skills such as problem solving and analytical thinking.
Maths students also benefited from daily gaming, topping up their average score with an additional 15 points.
![Computer gaming lets students apply and sharpen skills, such as problem solving and analytical thinking.](/web/20161014001510im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/n/r/q/z/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gqnbhc.png/1470691314906.jpg)
Associate Professor Posso said it was likely gaming students had a science bias, which attracted them to video games in the first place. However the results suggested video games could enhance a student's skills regardless of ability.
"They have to solve puzzles, use their cognitive skills and even solve some maths when playing video games," he said.
![Illustration: Cathy Wilcox](/web/20161014001510im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/n/x/n/9/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gqnbhc.png/1470797486138.jpg)
Students' reading results also benefited from gaming, which called on their comprehension skills and ability to navigate a storyline and assess information. Those students who played video games daily recorded scores 15 points above the average.
About 97 per cent of Australian teenagers have access to the internet, above the global average. For a generation whose lives have become increasingly virtual, Associate Professor Posso said incorporating gaming in education made sense.
"We shouldn't be dismissing these games," he said. "These are the tools that they are using ... and the curriculum perhaps has to be a little bit more flexible to reach this generation."
![Switched on: Rebecca Martin has embraced gaming technology in her North Fitzroy classroom.](http://web.archive.org./web/20161014001510im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/1/1/j/w/2/j/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1415597196093.png)
Switched on: Rebecca Martin has embraced gaming technology in her North Fitzroy classroom. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer
At Fitzroy North Primary School, grade three students have been playing and creating games for seven years.
Teacher Rebecca Martin said the school's digital technology program starts in prep, when students use tablets to tell a character on a screen to move on their command.
"Maths and science are the obvious areas where they benefit but they are also learning transferable skills such as creativity, 21 century skills and collaboration," Ms Martin said.
As of 2016 the Victorian Education Department now requires schools to teach digital technologies, including experimenting with coding, using games for literacy and numeracy and using technology to create and share projects.
Australian Centre for the Moving Image digital education producer Vincent Trundle said the findings backed up results of other studies highlighting the educational benefits gaming could offer.
He said more and more schools were coming on board and seeing gaming as an educational tool rather than solely a leisure activity.
"Students aren't just playing games now, they are making them which includes coding, graphics and designing audio and music," he said. "It's a much more engaging way of learning, especially for digital natives."
He said the skills could be widely applied - from learning to co-operate in a team and learning to fail and move on.
Monash University lecturer in digital technology Michael Phillips said elements of popular culture such as gaming had a role to play in education. However he cautioned it might not suit all students, schools or teachers.
"Not all people learn the same way and nor should they," he said. "We just don't know enough yet so we need to be continuously questioning the relationship between digital technologies and education."
The OECD data, known as PISA, was gathered from 772 Australian schools and 12,018 15-year-old students in 2012. The study was published in the International Journal of Communication.