If your teenagers are too immersed in video games to take out the garbage or finish homework, it might not be all bad. They may be learning how to be better future citizens. Kathy Sanford, an education professor at the University of Victoria, has heard all the downsides of kids hooked on video game play. But through a five-year research project, following a group of kids who were aged 13-17 at the start, she’s now convinced there is an upside – youth can, and do, adapt their screen-life strategies to useful skills in the outside world. Dr. Sanford sat down with The Globe and Mail on Tuesday, shortly before presenting her findings at a UVic conference of humanities and social sciences with some 7,000 delegates from across the country. There was a delicious moment of irony in the interview when she was stumped by a request to demonstrate one of the online role-playing games used by her subjects.