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Educational game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Educational games are games; board and card games, including video games that have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play.
= Learning game skills that are used to compete against and play with other playmates is often considered to be more important than more conventional learning skills. Teaching children to enjoy participating in an educational game is one of the most important first steps to a successful primary education. Any kid game must accomplish at least one of several things. It must educate about a concept, skill or an historical event, reinforce development or expand on a concept as the child learns to play the kid game. The kid game you decide on for your children will depend on their age and gender, but the child’s personal preference is also important.
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A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board" (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). Examples of educationally-designed board games include BEDMAS and Brain Chain.
An educational card game is any game using playing cards, either traditional or game-specific. Generally these games expand concepts, such as the food chain, set matching, etc. Flash card games are used to teach math, animal, and dinosaur species. Some card games improve memory.
Some people call these types of games edutainment because they combine education and entertainment. Closely related to the use of educational games is the use of what is known as Serious games. An educational computer game can be defined as an electronic medium with all the characteristics of a gaming environment that have intended educational outcomes targeted at specific groups of learners. A closely related concept is Digital Game-Based Learning, which combines serious learning and interactive entertainment in a fun, engaging and highly exciting medium.
Computer games can aid the development of proficiency by allowing users to interact with objects and manipulate variables. They are said to be particularly effective when designed to address a specific problem or teach a certain skill in curriculum subjects, where specific objectives can be stated and when deployed selectively within a context relevant to the learning activity and goal.
Simple types of games can be designed to address specific learning outcomes such as recall of factual content. For instance, the Nobel Prize Foundation website uses on-line games to aid children in understanding the discoveries made by its laureates by cleverly embedding the scientific knowledge as part of the game environment.
Other genres of games can enhance the teaching of life skills in students such as financial planning or political knowledge. In the online youth platform TakingITGlobal, a game called "Aiyiti - The Cost of Life" enables the player to assume the roles of family members living in rural Haiti. During the course of the game, the player has to choose life's choices such as whether to send the children to school, which job to work, the level of medical care and quality of life. The aim is to prosper, be educated and boost the household income over a period of time.
To aid in educating students and adults about the finer details of the different political systems, numerous companies have developed simulations that immerse the player into different political systems by forcing them to make realistic political decisions. These games vary from running an actual election campaign, like the games from TheorySpark, to games that allow the player to make the day-to-day decisions of running a country, as seen in Democracy. These types of games appeal to students, educators and adults alike.
Some of the best educational computer games are entertainment games. Examples are: Age of Empires (which teaches history and culture), the Sims (teaches home economics/personal budgeting), SimCity (teaches city planning), science fiction games (inspire people to enter the fields of astronomy, invention, physics, and new engineering), god games (Zoo Tycoon, Rollercoaster Tycoon, etc.)(teach management). These games are more popular than educational computer games, because customers are often uninterested in the preachiness and lack of action in educational games. Oddly, these entertainment computer games can teach just as much as educational computer games. By removing the 'Educational Game' title, game makers are finding that they can sell more copies, and therefore teach more people.
Computer and videogames received much more negative critics instead of positive critics because games are often coined with issue such as mindless entertainment, enhanced social recluse, sexism and consumerism. However, a shift from purely entertainment product to educational tool had emerged in recent time. Centralized by increasingly technological and informational society, children’s growing up in this modern day can benefit from educational games. The benefit in learning will occur through a mediated combination of learning and enjoyment experience to children growing up in our increasingly informational society (Gummow, 2004)[2].
The medium of educational games provide an opportunity for teachers to introduce educational and playful elements into the learning environment. And with computer-aid learning programs, teachers may assist students on social aspects such as critical learning, knowledge based communication and effective interpersonal skill that traditional method of teaching could not offer (Foley, 2004)[3].
As computer games are being adapted to the education system, the issue of classification and content regulation being bought to attention. The issue of regulating game content is vital as educational game is created to be an effective learning tool. Thus the game developer must have a comprehensive understanding of its young audience and their particular social and educational needs. At the same time, game developer must balance between entertainment and accordance with the education syllabus[4].
Below are some exapmes of types of games target young user from the ages of about three years to mid-teens; beyond the mid-teens, subjects become so complex (e.g. calculus) that teaching via a game can be impractical. Numerous subgenres exist, each for a different field, such as math games or typing games.
- Arcademic Skill Builders
- Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
- BEDMAS
- Carmen Sandiego series
- Classics for Kids Games[5] teaches music basics for free
- The ClueFinders
- Education Arcade
- e@Leader Online Training Program
- eduProfix
- Gamequarium
- Genomics Digital Lab: Plant Cells
- GCompris
- Gizmos & Gadgets
- JumpStart
- Oregon Trail series teaches American history
- Quest Atlantis
- Reader Rabbit
- Storybook Weaver
- Super Smart Games
- The Simpsons Cartoon Studio teaches basic animation
- Urban Jungle
- Zoombinis
- Aiyiti - The Cost of Life
- Core War Programming game
- Democracy
- Food Force
- Global Conflict: Palestine
- Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
- Military games - Wargaming introduces training to armed forces (see Serious games for list)
- Music sequencer games teach music
- Robocode Programming game
- President Forever 2008 + Primaries
- The Typing of the Dead - A somewhat less serious approach to the genre is typified by the typing tutor
Theorists, visionaries, and science fiction writers predict that the future of education will be in educational computer games. Educational games make learning fun, easier, and faster. Traditional schools will become obsolete, replaced by free online schools composed entirely of educational computer games. Everyone will be home-schooled through their personal home computers. From pre-school to college and job training, every course will be a computer game. No one will have to pay for tuition, books, teacher salaries, and transportaion to school. Both the government and the students will save money, lowering the cost of living, and thus reducing poverty. All education will be free, giving the poor the opportunity to attend free school online. If a test (game) is failed, the student can take it over as many times as he/she wants to, until a passing grade is achieved, causing higher grades and fewer high school drop-outs. Passing a grade-game will unlock the next grade-game for that subject. Educational computer games on computers in public libraries, orphanages, homeless shelters, jeuvenile halls, and prisons will give the less fortunate the opportunity to learn to read, receive a college education, and job training. Free job training will increase employment in the private sector. Gang members who learn new job skills will have other options, other than making money through crime. Most national economic problems can be solved with job training in the fields of demand. Less transport to school means less traffic in a future that will have bigger populations, and therefore more street congestion. Required basic survival skill will be taught to kids and adults through games, such as water purification, growing food, building houses, and first aid. This will create more house builders, who will build more houses, which will lower the price of houses, which will lower the cost of living and reduce poverty. Free medical school education games will increase the number of doctors, which will lower the cost of medical bills and health insurance.
- Marc Prensky.com
- Video Games and Education
- Games2Train
- Social Impact Games
- DOD Game Community
- Games Parents Teachers
- [6]