Going Digital in Educational Gaming
When a game is explicitly created to educate or provide incidental or secondary educational value, these are referred to as educational games. Any game may be used for education purposes. These games aid people in learning about certain subjects, propel development, provide better grasp of key events, history or culture, as well as hone skills as they go thru the games. Board or card games as well as video games can be educational games. When games are designed to teach people about a subject and allow them to learn a skill, these become educational.
Educational gaming is now mainstream largely due to government, educators and parents realization of the psychological needs and benefits gaming has on the learning process. These games, in the form of a story, are interactive: providing opportunities for learning goals, rules, adaptation, problem solving. These games not only sate our basic need for learning but provide enjoyment, a milieu for passionate involvement, motivation, self-gratification; an opportunity for creativity, social interaction and expression of emotion as the games are played.
"Game-based learning" is one type of game play with defined learning results. Game-based learning design balances the subject of the unblocked games with the game play and allows the player to absorb the learning and apply this in the real world.
The myriad technological devices now available has largely influenced people on what game type to patronize. Video games now are much more used compared to traditional board games. Software development to drive the creation of educational video games has risen. Such software development must stimulate the cognitive growth of the gamer and these software creation is categorized by three approaches. The three approaches are: educators and programmers creating from scratch; students creating from scratch; and integrating existing commercial "off-the-shelf" (COTS).
A clear understanding of the instructor's learning outcomes with the integration of COTS in the classroom is by far the most time and cost effective approach. For this to be effective, the teacher must believe in the positive impact of digital gaming to education. It also requires the teacher being adept at using these digital games. Students normally are highly adept in digital gaming while there still a perceived lack of teachers' confidence resulting to low effectiveness of the educational use of digital games.
While teachers must boost their self-efficacy in digital gaming, it should be coupled with the understanding that the built-in learning process is what makes it enjoyable. A player learns as he progresses thru the game. The player feels rewarded as he progresses thru the game and learns new concepts, regardless whether it is a pilot seriously learning via a flight simulator or a player merely seeking entertainment as he plays "Call of Duty". Ideal learning environments can be achieved through well-designed games that keep players motivated. Facing real-world challenges becomes much easier with interactive games that engages people in the learning process. For more info, follow the given link.