[Survey] Games as an essential educational tool

[Luis Felipe]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm developing a study for my university where I'm digging into the educational system of today. More specifically, I'm focusing on the fact that education could possibly benefit from steering legendary teaching methods to newer ones such as games to adapt to a new type of learner; The "NetGeners" as a few authors have referred to people that learn in different ways compared to typical educational methods.

 

For this study, I'm conducting a survey, I would really love to have your input!

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CKZDuxKHo3Qtk4OZ8LOFj-oJJQssvHvvMsU-MLVxeg0/viewform?usp=send_form

 

I would like to publish my study once I'm done. It will be in french as my university is in french, but anyone interested in reading please send me a PM, I'd love to chat.

 

I also recommend this essay to anyone who is interested to learn more about games and learning. There are some very interesting figures and ideas.

 

http://jime.open.ac.uk/article/2004-8-oblinger/199

 

 

Thank you for your time

[RazorSharpFang]

I'd absolutely LOVE to get into educational gaming (making games for education) but am not sure about how to go about this.

 

Totally filled out the survey. 100%. I win.

 

I'd love nothing more than to earn a living by making games for education. Haven't a clue how though. First challenge is to find out how to make games that are educational, but still teach the curriculum. And then you have all the different subjects and their stuff.

 

This is hard.

 

I can see maths/sciences/physics/chemistry/biology being hard to teach through games, especially secondary education level. I can't see any way to make calculus engaging through play. 

 

Maybe not all subject matter is best taught with games? I don't know. : /

[Luis Felipe]

Thanks to all the participants for taking the survey, helps a lot

 

@Razor love to see that enthusiasm! I also share your vision. It would be fantastic.

 

I think you're right., first as devs we must really become excellent in making games educational. But I think the easiest way would be to look at syllabus' that are quite global and create a game that follows the same path. Specially introduction to school classes or university lectures such as: Introduction to Political Economics or Introduction to Management, Accounting etc. Because a game teaching something too specific would have too small a market to be worth the effort.

 

I mean I look at my university classes wher electures are held (around 200-300 people) and I can assure you around 50% mostly males are playing games ALL THE TIME! To me that just shows we have to get to people a different way, that's why I really feel there's a potential for this.

 

But I also think that games that "look" educational aren't very attractive. Naming it: "Learn maths with Bobby" isn't going to cut it IMHO. These new educational games could be something very deep and profound, an inmersive experience where the player grows while solving problems that don't look like problems. The best reaction would be "well that wasn't so hard", then as the game progresses the user becomes more skillful and can solve more difficult problems.

 

I think in terms of profit, t's difficult because in app store the game would be competing with games that focus entirely on entertainment most of the time, no on would necessarily be "looking" for you.

 

But it could start on a website, like Duolingo (now they have an app). A place where people go to learn, through games. Then you could start publishing apps to the app store since you now have customers who want your services offline as well.

 

But you're also right about subject matter being an issue. Calculus haha yes that would certainly be hard to convert into an educational game

 

Glad to see people interested in educational games! 

[turnA]

I agree with you.

For example, I think The Sandbox (ios/android/bb10) can do better job to teach kids about nature than formal class. 

I also feel my games, Sagemath, is still too on the nose and want to find another way to optimize it further

[CrStar]

I'd absolutely LOVE to get into educational gaming (making games for education) but am not sure about how to go about this.

 

Totally filled out the survey. 100%. I win.

 

I'd love nothing more than to earn a living by making games for education. Haven't a clue how though. First challenge is to find out how to make games that are educational, but still teach the curriculum. And then you have all the different subjects and their stuff.

 

This is hard.

 

I can see maths/sciences/physics/chemistry/biology being hard to teach through games, especially secondary education level. I can't see any way to make calculus engaging through play. 

 

Maybe not all subject matter is best taught with games? I don't know. : /

 

I think calculus could be taught in a risk reward type game in the form of a dating sim. Here's an odd example;

 

Let's say we have a character that's trying to get from point A to point B (the location of their date) but has a couple of optional routes that link to the point B. The player can then determine the distance each route covers, and then take the first derivative for the speed of the character and then take the second derivative to find the acceleration. Using the following information the player can choose the pathway they think is the quickest way to meet their goal. The earlier they arrive the happier there partner is or the later they arrive the more mad they get. Or maybe even more options such as buying a gift beforehand and calculating if you will have enough cash to pay off the bill for your date. 

 

The following example is one way I can think of from the top of my head. But then again many people don't play dating sim's but I think there would be other ways to involve education. The only problem I see is finding people willing to sponsor educational games at a higher degree such as university or college.

[Luis Felipe]

@turnA I think Sagemath is already a good example of what a good educational game can be, I mean they can take it anywhere, they might even arrive the next day in class and be at an advantage because they can solve problems quicker. The cool thing is they wouldn't even have noticed they where having so much fun solving math problems

 

@retrodude That's already a fantastic idea, I like the added difficulty with having to buy a gift beforehand. I mean I can already imagine playing this game with excellent UI, scores, achievements etc.  And you came up with that idea on the fly

 

It's definitely true that it's hard to get sponsorship. In my opinion, to get this sector moving it'll have to be done the "indie basement garage" style until it develops enough hype to be a viable option for investors. Of course ads can be integrated, or could that be a bad idea?

[Elizabeth993]

On 5/1/2014 at 7:14 AM, RazorSharpFang said:

I can see maths/sciences/physics/chemistry/biology being hard to teach through games, especially secondary education level.

You'd be surprised but such apps already exist, have a look at GeoGebra, AugThat! and StarWalk. These can be implemented in both high-schools and universities. Even medical majors embrace some elements of gamification (various AR/VR apps, competing against each other and their own previous results). I believe that gamification and communication should be the core of any learning process, not traditional 90% of writing and 10% of talking. This especially applies to post-USSR countries where educational systems got stuck in the 90s.

Speaking of my experience, I used to study Psychology at Montclair state uni and it's a shame we had so little interactive classes where we would play games. Sometimes my groupmates would organize our special evenings when someone would have to play out different psychiatric disorders while others had to diagnose them with something  I admit our games took the vast majority of our free time but I don't regret anything, even using this website to order custom essays:  https://essaypro.com/write-my-essay.html. In the end, I think we could benefit more from our collective playing rather than rewriting thoughts of the 'real professionals'. 

@turnA, thanks for mentioning the Sandbox, I will definitely try it out with my nephew!

[Perrycat]

Interesting topic! Your essay seems very nice and well written! I wish I could write so well as you do! Unfortunately I`m not the best writer, so usually I apply for writing help with my college assignments. The problem is to find a good price and service ratio, and to choose a reliable service. I can`t say it about Academized, the service I`ve used recently, as they write papers of poor quality at rather high prices.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Perrycat

[Xima]

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[Beeandley]

Really interesting topic!

[Xima]

I absolutely agree with you. A very good example of a project that will be very relevant in college. When I was in college, which was two years ago, I knew that the sooner I started doing such projects, the easier it would be for me to continue it at university. So I chose one sphere, one project and worked only on it. If I had to write essay, for example, I bought essay for sale and correct text at the proofreading service. If I needed to earn money, I invested. I mean, I did everything to make sure that there was more time left for my essay.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Xima

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