Educational Videogames

[Deleted]

Hi folks,

I'm working on a website about the educational potential of videogames and I would like you to share your ideas and experiences.

- Has a teacher in your school ever used a videogame in class?
- Do you know good 'serious games'?
- Do you know mainstream games that actually have educational potential?

- Any links, websites, movies, ... about this subject would be very welcome, maybe something comes to mind?


Thanks in advance!

[Restos3]

Mario is missing.
Don't play it tho.

[Deleted]

The only thing I picked up from video games is the English language.

[Ighox]

Civ 4 is being used by some schools at least (only article I could find in english), and I know one school in my country uses it in first grade so maybe more will follow eventually.

Valve is doing something with Portal 2.

[Lazy Gecko]

Flight simulators are a given.

Long ago, the US military made a mod for Doom to train troops with. It's released to the public somewhere, and yes, it's as stupid and ineffective as it sounds.

[Gandrake]

I picked up a pretty vast vocabulary from playing RPGs, actually.

Most children in middle school wouldn't even know what the words Voluptuous or Vehement mean.

[M,J,Jonsson]

I learned a lot of math from wc3 mostly about multipliers and percentages.

[Deleted]

Age of Empires 3 (or maybe Civ 3) was used in early secondary school (11-12) when I went around '99-2000. Imagine it was to supplement the info about the Roman Empire in a visual fashion. Doubt that's mainstream though, and my memory isn't fantastic.

Like with the maths in WC3, an argument could be made that games make you apply real world subjects in a way that kids will probably find more engaging and 'real' than the textbook theory you spend most of your time learning, and may absorb it more easily. How practical this is though, who knows.

[videotape]

I am a member of a small startup which has been developing educational videogames for nearly 8 years.

There are still no great products on the market for general consumption, but many organizations are increasingly using custom videogames internally to educate, train, coach, and evaluate their workers. These organizations range from the U.S. military (by far the most prominent - they use ton of games and simulations) down to large retail chains down to small warehouses and job shops who have certification obligations to fulfill or substantial safety concerns in the workplace.

Examples of topics covered by games currently in widespread use: combat training, equipment operation (from forklifts to military drones), real-time and turn-based business and resource management, safety training - with a particular focus various specific national standards, ergonomics, and even customer service.

I unfortunately am unable to disclose specific names of organizations, but maybe this all will give you another starting point for your research?

Educational gaming is still relatively new. It is slowly but steadily gaining traction in various markets. You'll see a lot more of it in the next 5 years.

[Jakzz]

Vast vocab from RPG's, and talking to people from other countries in their native language as practice for language class in school.

[Deleted]

Minecraft could be something aswell with all the redstone contraptions and such that you can build in it i read a while ago that schools already use minecraft for educational purpose cant seem to find the article for it thought.

[Deleted]

something that's often overlooked when looking at educational gaming is the social skills gamers can develop from gaming. teamwork, coordination, communication,... and MMOs are already used to study economics.

[Deleted]

I saw a video of a guy teaching young kids about sharing, sustainability etc. in minecraft. He basically made levels where they had to work together. There was for example one tree, so they had to collect the seeds and plant them etc.

Was pretty interesting to watch how he was teaching it and how the kids reacted.

[Bizkitz]

I learnt a lot of vocabulary from Warcraft 3 and WoW, and Assassin's Creed got me a little more interested in history past the more "modern" period. Always thought the Renaissance was boring and was all about painters and inventors. Now I have a slight inkling to have a little read of Macchiavelli... doubt I will any time soon though :P

So I've only noticed mainstream games being able to educate in little tid bits, not vast topics (you could count AC I guess, but I would take the story in any of the AC games with a grain of salt until you can verify it. If you do verify it, it feels awesome, or maybe that's just me )