Video games have become a standardised part of the entertainment industry and there are many people out there that would call them selves ‘gamers’. These ‘gamers’ use video games as a form of entertainment and escapism as an everyday thing but there are such things as video games that aren’t designed solely for their entertainment value. Education has been known to use video games as an education tool but it doesn’t appear to be a widely used or popular thing. The potential for video games to be used along side the regular text book or to even replace them is uncertain. It is not widely known how they are being used now and of what audience they appeal to best. Are computer and video games successful in educating everyone to a standard that is needed or are they used more as support tools? Their will be research into peoples attitudes from an industry and public view as well as seeing how they have changed over time. There are other areas of education other than the schools and university course criteria such as making people aware and educating them on such issues as bullying within schools and how to cope and what to do. The genre of serious video games is another area of video games used as education.
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What sort of level of education are you hoping to address? Is this primary schools/secondry schools etc.
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth looking at this video lecture podcast about the future of education for children, I think he has some really important ideas... especially about teaching children how to program and write software from an early age with programs like Scratch from MIT
ReplyDeletehttp://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/researchchannel.org.1795787197?i=1162074978
When i was younger i used to read loads of novels as well as play huge role-playing video games. I still think games like Final Fantasy that convey complex narrative structures across several intertwined plots helped develop my english vocabulary just as much as any book or teacher. I've read in studies that video games are excellent at teaching problem solving (Zelda's dungeon puzzles are amazing examples!) and for me Video games have improved my hand-eye coordination over the years. I know i sounds a bit daft but controlling a 3D character like Mario around a full 3D environment without losing control and throwing them off a cliff still eludes most of the population (My mother for one!).
ReplyDeleteThis list from the "Librarian's Guide to Gaming" is a good run down of the different forms of litercies it is their literacys 101, it is quite an interesting project...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.librarygamingtoolkit.org/literacy.html
great, thnx alot for the resources.
ReplyDelete"Learning to Play or Playing to Learn - A Critical Account of the Models of Communication Informing Educational Research on Computer Gameplay"
ReplyDeleteby Hans Christian Arnseth
http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/arnseth
hc13: John Kirriemuir, Groundhog Day for Games in Learning
ReplyDeletehttp://www.digra.org/hardcore/hc13/
This is a good article but what is more usful than the actual article is the set of references at the bottom that link to a number of different reports on Games and E-Learning
This blog post just popped up
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2009/03/why-making-educational-games-is-hard.html
Throw Out Your Textbooks: Games are the Future of Learning
ReplyDeletehttp://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=28318&fID=345