Gaming, Kids, and Education

Games are a form of entertainment that has been around forever. Today's digital natives are increasingly interested in playing all kinds of games: traditional board games, video games, and online interactive games. Some interesting statistics I found this week are:

• 43 percent of gamers are female
• 83 percent of games are non violent
• An average eigth grader spends 5 hours a week playing games.

Games offer clear goals, lessons that can be practiced and mastered, monitoring learner progress and adjusting instruction to learner level of mastery, closing the gap between what is learned and its use, motivation that encourages time on task, personalization of learning, and infinite patience.

Gaming does have a place in Education. Educators should work to minimize competition with classmates, though some competition seems to be healthy. This is why funbrain can be good. Students aren’t playing against each other. Another positive outcome of gaming is that it teaches problem solving skills as well as other skills that are vital in the workplace as well as in the classroom. According to Ross Miller’s article “Scientist recommend Educational Gaming,” “Making logical deductions, staying on task, staying motivated and goal-oriented despite constant failure, and infinite patience are all abilities gamers have and students need.

An educational gaming site I found particularly interesting was Supercharged! The Educational Arcade. This is a site containing a game that teaches science, but through browsing the Educational Arcade site I found games that reinforce history, math, and literacy.