Games in Education

Reflections on Games in Education

1st generation of games were edutainment that provided repetitive practice of skills but were not as engaging as other games on the market

2nd generation of games focused on the student and the experiences they already had before playing the game.

3rd generation does not focus on a specific game but on the social context and questions being asked to lead people to appropriate learning.

Development of visual/iconic skills occurs with games. The ability to pay attention to multiple visual events and keep track of location of information needed to be successful in the game. This translates to skills in science and technology.

Early use of computer games develops a play approach to interactions with computers for young learners.

Computer games develop problem solving skills, co-operation, and practical participation in an activity. Games are not as good as other media for developing textual understanding.

Secondary teachers liked the adventure and simulation games the most but had trouble seeing how it would fit within their curriculum that has so much focus on coverage of the content of the course.
Games can provide a secondary rehearsal of skills and develop learning skills but do not provide the primary learning of the course content.

The use of games in a classroom would require the introduction of the game at the beginning of the course and established time for the students to begin to become familiar with the objectives of the game. Time would also need to be set aside to reflect on the learning from the game and how that connected to the content of the course. Training for staff ahead of time is always critical in getting any buy in. The effectiveness of games will continue to be challenging in secondary education until the pressure for coverage of course content shifts to a focus on depth of understanding of a smaller set of content.