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Gaming in Education

Using gaming in educational settings opens the doors for new possibilities in teaching and learning. Games, if done right, can become a powerful tool to get groups to work together.

According to Elliot Masie, gaming allows learners to "fail to success". This concept of failing forward allows learners to test their limits in a safe enviornmtne. In addition, gaming increases muscle memory, or the rehersal necessary to solidify correct behavior. Finally, gaming increases an internal and external competative spirit related to learnign opportunities.

Creating games will become easer in the future too. Microsoft recently anounced that they would be opening up their game development platform to anyone who want's to create their own games

Some Interesting Gaming Facts

Here are some interesting facts on gaming from the Learning Federation:

  • An 8th grader plays video games an average of 5 hours per week
  • By high school, 77% of students have played games; by college nearly all have
  • 60% of college students are regular game players
  • As of April 2005, America’s Army had more than 5 million registered users

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

  • 70% of college students play video or online games at least once in a while.
  • 65% of college students are regular or occasional game players.
  • Half of college student gamers agreed that gaming keeps them from studying. In addition, about 10% admitted that their main motivation for playing games was to avoid studying.

Educational Gaming Resources Online

Some questions to ask when evaluating games

  1. How compelling or engagnin was the experience?
  2. How comfortable did you ffeel with the game controls (interface, etc)
  3. Did you feel you were playing or learning?
  4. Did the graphic quality help or hinder the experience?
  5. What kind of instructional design could you observe in the game?
  6. Did you choose to coninue on to the next level or stage when you had the opportunity?

MIT  Education Arcade

Federation of American Scientistso

 

Armed Forces Games

US Army

US Air Force

Other

Win the election - www.ciconline.og/elections (notice the digging deeper secments)

Intel IT manager game - itmg2.intel.com/eng (you need a username and password for this game) how did you act when the "boss" called you into his office? What was the most stressful aspect of this game?

Propaganda games

Games encouraging non-violent conflict solutions

Virtual Reality Games and Simulations

Does using an avitar increase your engagement with the game? How did you interact with other avitars in the virtual world?

There.com
Secondlife.com

Forio Simulation Builder - broadcast.forio.com (needs a password )

Literature on Gaming in Education

Research paper - Electromagnetism Supercharged!  Learning Physics with Digital Simulation Games [PDF]

 

Link to more educational games

Academic Gaming Organizations

  • BECTA – British Educational Computer and Technology Association (UK)
  • DigiPlay - Universities of Manchester and Central Lancashire (UK)
  • E-GEMS – Electronic Games for Education in math and Science (U of British Columbia, Canada)
  • e-Cybermission - Math and Science learning
  • The Learning Federation (American Federation of Scientists, Microsoft, et al.) (US)
  • MIT Games To Teach Project (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Microsoft) (US)
  • MIT Media Lab (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (US)
  • TEEM – Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia (UK

Other Educational Gaming Websites

 

 Related Links

APA Style Guide

Digital Video Dimension Tool

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