Educational game

Games fulfill a number of educational purposes. Some games may be explicitly designed with educational purposes, while others may have incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an educational environment. Educational games are games that are designed to teach people about certain subjects, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. Game types include board, card, and video games.

Educational games are defined as Individual or group games that have cognitive, social, behavioral, and/or emotional, etc., dimensions which are related to educational objectives.^[1]

Board games

A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games can be based on pure strategies, chance (e.g. rolling dice) or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most current board games are still based on defeating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position or accrual of points (often expressed as in-game currency).

There are many different types and styles of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, as with checkers, to having a specific theme and narrative, as with Cluedo. Rules can range from the very simple, as in tic-tac-toe, to those describing a game universe in great detail, as in Dungeons & Dragons (although most of the latter are role-playing games where the board is secondary to the game, helping to visualize the game scenario).

The amount of time required to learn to play or master a game varies greatly from game to game. Learning time does not necessarily correlate with the number or complexity of rules; some games, such as chess or Go, have simple rulesets while requiring profound strategies.

Card games

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules, but most are folk games whose rules vary by region, culture, and person.

Video games

Some examples of educational video games under development at Penn State University include:

1- ChemBlaster2- Trust Me3- EconU

Game based learning

Game based learning (GBL) is a type of game play that has defined learning outcomes. Generally, game based learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.

Origins

In his classical essay, "Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man", Friedrich Schiller discusses play as a force of civilization, which helps humans rise above their instincts and become members of enlightened communities. He states that "humans are only fully human when they play". While the text is limited by the author's beliefs in concepts such as freedom and beauty, it nevertheless sets the stage for Johan Huizinga's classical study, Homo Ludens.

Theory

Games often have a fantasy element that engages players in a learning activity through narrative or storylines. Educational video games can motivate children and allow them to develop an awareness of consequentiality.^[2] Children are allowed to express themselves as individuals while learning and engaging in social issues. Today's games are more social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.^[3] Students that participate in educational video games can offer deeper, more meaningful insights in all academic areas.^{[citation needed]} The success of game-based learning strategies owes to active participation and interaction being at the center of the experience, and signals that current educational methods are not engaging students enough^{[citation needed]} Experience with and affinity for games as learning tools is an increasingly universal characteristic among those entering higher education and the workforce.^[4] Game-based learning is an expansive category, ranging from simple paper-and-pencil games like word searches all the way up to complex, massively multiplayer online (MMO) and role-playing games.^[5] The use of collaborative game-based role-play for learning provides an opportunity for learners to apply acquired knowledge and to experiment and get feedback in the form of consequences or rewards, thus getting the experiences in the "safe virtual world".^[6]

The built-in learning process of games is what makes a game enjoyable. The progress a player makes in a game is through learning. It is the process of the human mind grasping and coming to understand a new system. The progress of understanding a new concept through gaming makes an individual feel a sense of reward whether the game is considered entertainment (Call of Duty) or serious (FAA-approved flight simulator). Well-designed games that motivate players are what make them ideal learning environments.^{[citation needed]} Real-world challenges are easier faced within a game containing effective, interactive experiences that actively engage people in the learning process. In a successful game-based learning environment, choosing actions, experiencing consequences, and working toward goals allows players to make mistakes through experimentation in a risk-free environment. Games have rules and structure and goals that inspire motivation. Games are interactive and provide outcomes and feedback. Most games also have problem solving situations that spark creativity.^[7]

Neurological context

Thaigi states that games have five major characteristics: conflict, control, closure, contrivance, and competency. Games encourage active learning, interaction between multiple people, encourages team work, and also provide a free environment that allows for skill enhancement. Games based learning provides versatility for more than one learning style, and also can affect cognitive and psychomotor skills. While learning through games can be very effective, they can become a distraction, causing them to become too focused on the game and not on learning. ^[8][9]

"…It cannot be denied that a great deal of learning does happen in games. Computer games that are considered “good”(i.e. popular and highly rated) already provide information in various formats, although the preference in most games is for information to be visually presented. By providing information in multiple formats (visual, textual, auditory, etc.), players cannot only choose a style that matches their own preference, but they can also practice their skills in others, and sometimes they do this even without realizing it.^[10]

"By design, good games support the approaches of concrete learners through a myriad of feedback mechanisms: visual, auditory, textual, progress charts, etc. while abstract learners can ignore which ever feedback mechanisms they choose – often by simply switching them off. Abstract learners can develop theories and test them out within games in ways not feasible in real life. The “reset” button remains available to both whenever they get into trouble. ^[11]

Application

Traditionally, technology used in school operates at the base level.^{[clarification needed]} They usually make up case studies designed to introduce students to certain technologies in an effort to prepare them for a future major assignment that requires the aforementioned technology. In the future, technology and games are expected to be used in simulation environments to simulate real world issues. In the professional sector, such as flight training, simulations are already used in an effort to prepare pilots for training before actually going out into planes. These training sessions are used to replicate real life stresses without the risk factor associated with flying.

Before deciding how to use game-based learning, the trainer must first determine what they would like the trainees to learn. A trainer that fails to focus training around a central idea runs the risk of using a game that fails to connect with the learners. To prevent this, tailor the material to the demographic(age group, familiarity, educational pre-text)so that the material is neither too difficult or familiar to the learner.^[12] Gathering ideas from children early in the design process has yielded useful insights into what children want in technology in general or in a specific type of application.^[13] Children's early involvement in requirements gathering has revealed clues about gender differences in preferences related to technology, children's navigation skills, ways of presenting textual information, application-specific content-related preferences, the variety of elements to be included in user interfaces and their structures, and children's desire to personalize their applications.^[13]

See also

• Edutainment
• Genomics Digital Lab
• Global Challenge Award
• Learnalot
• Mouse Practice
• Quest Atlantis
• Educational toy

Further reading

• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). ISBN 978-1-4039-6169-3

Footnotes

References

• Video games 'stimulate learning', BBC News, March 18, 2002
• Dostál, J. Educational software and computer games - tools of modern education, Journal of Technology and Information Education. 2009, Palacký University, Olomouc, Volume 1, Issue 1, p. 24 - 28. ISSN 1803-537X
• Lin, G. H. C., Kung, T. W. T., Chien, S. C.(2011) Computer Games Functioning as Motivation Stimulants http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED528578. pdf

External links

• Educational Games Nobelprize.org