Educational video game


An educational video game is a video game that provides learning or training value to the player. Edutainment describes an intentional merger of video games and educational software into a single product. In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Normally software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula and does not involve educational advisors.
Educational video games play a significant role in the school curriculum for teachers who seek to deliver core lessons, reading and new skills. Gamification of education allows learners to take active roles in learning and develop technological skills that are needed for their academic and professional careers. Several recent studies have shown that video games, whether violent or not can help children in the development of intellectual and emotional skills that support their academic achievement. These findings have made teachers all over the world recognize the numerous benefits of gaming and to include educational video game learning in their curricula.

Definition

Educational video games can be categorized into two classes:
  • Edutainment games are those designed around drilling subject matter to the user in a linear manner, while wrapping the game with entertainment aspects.
  • Educational video games are aimed to encourage creative thinking and problem solving, and encourage greater interactivity from the user, often presented in non-linear experiences.
Most educational and edutainment games are purposely developed for use within the classroom or at home to teach students. However, a number of core video games which were not purposely built for educational purposes have found use for education. Such games include strategy war games that include historical references, like the Total War franchise or the Age of Empires trilogy and an in-game encyclopaedia like Civilization. These games often integrate education without being explicitly educational. These are games which were originally developed for adults or older children and which have potential learning implications. For the most part, these games provide simulations of different kinds of human activities, allowing players to explore a variety of social, historical and economic processes.
Examples:
  • City-building games such as the SimCity series and Caesar invite players to explore the social, practical and economic processes involved in city management;
  • Empire-building games such as the Civilization series and the Europa Universalis series help players to learn about history and its political, economic and military aspects;
  • Railroad management games such as Railroad Tycoon and Rails Across America illuminate the history, engineering and economics of railroad management.
  • Geography games such as PlaceSpotting and GeoGuessr help players to find locations on Earth according to some hints.
  • Physics games such as Quantum Moves and A Slower Speed of Light aim to impart intuition for complicated physics concepts such as quantum mechanics and special relativity.
  • Geometry games with non-Euclidean geometry, such as HyperRogue and Hyperbolica, aim to impart intuition for how non-Euclidean spaces such as hyperbolic and spherical spaces work.
  • Trading and commerce based games such as The Patrician challenge players to create and grow a trading empire managing acquiring, processing, transporting, and bartering resources within a limited region.
The games have been enthusiastically received in some educational circles and are mentioned in academic literature.
A new category was recently started by Bot Colony. It can be used to practice English dialogue by conversing with intelligent robots as part of an adventure game.

Design

Many titles were developed and released from the mid-1990s onwards, aimed primarily at the home education of young children. Later iterations of these titles often began to link educational content to school curricula such as England's National Curriculum. The design of educational games for home use has been influenced by gaming concepts – they are designed to be fun and educational.
Examples of children's learning software which have a structured pedagogical approach, usually orientated towards literacy and numeracy skills.
One of the prominent trends in online education today is online coloring websites, which help children develop creativity and practice fine motor skills. For example, the coloring book website provides hundreds of images for children to freely color online. This is a fun tool to help children relax and learn through art.
According to research, play-based learning can improve children's thinking and creativity, encouraging children to explore the world around them more naturally. Hirsh-Pasek is a famous researcher in the field of child psychology and education. She is one of the advocates of integrating learning through play into the curriculum, emphasizing that children learn better when participating in interesting and interactive activities.

History

The early mainframe game The Sumerian Game was, while not the first resource management game, the first designed for elementary school students. In 1970 Abt published a book on the topic: "Serious games: The art and science of games that simulate life.".
Educational games became more popular in the early 1980s due to a number of factors. The video game crash of 1983 caused the console market in the United States to collapse, displaced by the growing home computer market. Further, the arcade game market was partially affected by the crash, but also had become stigmatized by a new moral panic around video game arcades due to perceived connections to violence and video game addiction. Computer game developers looked to take advantage of the situation by creating education games for home computer systems which would not only satisfy children's entertainment but would please parents and educators. In September 1983 the Boston Phoenix reported that "edutainment" games were a new focus area for companies after end of growth of the Atari 2600 software market. In 1983, the term "edutainment" was used to describe a package of software games for the Oric 1 and Spectrum Microcomputers in the UK. Dubbed "arcade edutainment" an advertisement for the package can be found in various issues of "Your Computer" magazine from 1983. The software package was available from Telford ITEC a government-sponsored training program. The originator of the name was Chris Harvey who worked at ITEC at the time.
Since then, many other computer games such as Electronic Arts's Seven Cities of Gold, released in 1984, have also used edutainment as a descriptive term. Most edutainment games seek to teach players by employing a game-based learning approach. Criticism as to which video games can be considered educational has led to the creation of "serious games" whose primary focus is to teach rather than entertain.
Psychologist researched the educational use and potential of computer games and has written many articles on the subject. One paper dealing specifically with edutainment breaks it down into 3 general categories to separate the cognitive methods most predominantly used to teach. He is critical of the research that has been done on the educational use of computer games, citing their biases and weaknesses in method, which cause their findings to lack scientific validity.

In education

Games provide structure to problem-solving. This allows a player to "fail up", meaning that with the combination of challenging and fun and identity-building, the student will want to continue to persist on that problem until it is solved. It is a productive failure. This may take quite a few times before success is reached, but progress is obtained each time and so is knowledge on how to solve that problem. Iteration and discovery become two major aspects to learning through game playing. Many students have a "sweet spot" for gaming, which allows gaming in education to be successful in terms of grasping concepts, while this can be more difficult through the use of a book. Students may not even realize that they are learning through a game. Games need to include novelty. Unexpected occurrences and challenging choices allow the player to want to keep playing. Having a story or narrative in the game is what can really suck a player into the game. It allows for continuous feedback and challenges at the right level of difficulty, while avoiding frustration.
When developing successful learning games for the classroom, it can be a challenging task. In order for the game to show achievement in student learning, the games should hold certain qualities. The development of successful games to promote learning requires attention to opposing factors. Creativity and inventiveness is needed to help the outcome work well and run smoothly. Games should take the opposite approach of drill-and-practice principles, as this simplifies the games and limits the domains of knowledge. The three factors to keep in mind when designing strong and successful games are integration, motivation, and focus. In order for the player to progress in the game, they must master the learning goals and objectives behind the game. The game should be integrated with learning goals. In the content that needs to be taught through the game, it should be made a point that in order to succeed in the game, is to know the information, which creates importance to the player. The game needs to be as motivating as possible and should pose a challenge. The primary activity of the game should be interacting and interesting to the students. Games are about decision making, where one sees what the consequences are and what feedback one receives. Games teach students about rewards, but that it takes some work to receive those rewards. The actions within the game need to be relevant to life outside the game, so learning can occur. Focus can most successfully occur when one is learning by exploring, operating, or interacting.
Teachers are using games more regularly that focus on a wide variety of objectives, while exposing students to more game genres and devices. There is much more structure, which makes it a lot easier for the teacher, and the students enjoy it. Students have become so fluent with the use of online tools. Learning data can be generated from the use of online games, which allow the teacher to have insight on the knowledge the children have obtained, and what needs improvement; this can then help a teacher with their curriculum and teaching.
A nationwide study of 488 K–12 teachers in the United States found that, as of 2013, over half were using digital games in the classroom weekly. Most classrooms nowadays have replaced the traditional blackboard for the Smart Board, bringing technology into the classroom. As we move forward into the digital age, most schools provide lessons on computer literacy to ensure students are fluent when it comes to technology. Likewise, the use of well-designed educational video games delivers game based learning that can motivate students to participate more enthusiastically in subjects, including those that are often less popular. It is also noted that educational video games offer more interaction, immediate feedback, to both student and teacher, and more student control. Educational video games that involve aspects of reality, provide students with opportunities to be involved in an interactive environment that they would not ordinarily be allowed to participate in but from the safety of a classroom.
As video games spread in the 1980s, the educational potential of them was researched. Its findings showed that the visual and motor coordination of game players was better than that of non-players. Initial research also indicated the importance of electronic games for children who proved to have difficulty learning basic subjects and skills. It also found that:
  • Video games helped students to identify and attempt to correct their deficiencies.
  • The adaptability of video games, and the control that players have over them, motivate and stimulate learning.
  • In cases where students have difficulty concentrating, video games can be highly useful.
  • Promote critical awareness of discourse communities.
  • The instant feedback given by video games help arouse curiosity and in turn allows for greater chances of learning.
  • Video games teach cooperation.
One common argument for the use of video games in education is that they enable learning from the simulation while having no danger associated with mistakes. For instance, the Air Force uses piloting simulations in order to teach their pilots how to fly the airplanes. These simulations are meant to prepare the training pilot for real-world flight conditions while at the same time preventing any damage or loss of life in the process. A pilot could crash in the simulation, learn from their mistake and then reset and try again. This process leads to distinct levels of mastery over the simulation and in turn the plane they will also be flying in the future. The military also utilizes games such as the ARMA and Socom franchises in their training. Games like these immerse the gamer into the realm of the game and will attempt to achieve whatever objective is set out for them using their tactical skills. This allows for the military to show their soldiers how to engage certain situations without the risk of injury.
Games of all types have been shown to increase a different array of skills for players. Attempts have been made to show that arcade-style action and platforming games can be used to develop motor co-ordination, manual skills, and reflexes. Many authors have noted the educational potential of games like The Sims or the Civilization series, concluding that video games as a whole promote intellectual development, and suggest that players can use them to develop knowledge strategies, practice problem-solving, and can improve spatial skills. While specific video games have been used, other study-type games were created specifically to aid students in studying for educational classes.