Games vs. Education

     Kurt Squire brought up an interesting topic in his article “From Content to Context: Videogames as Designed Experience.” He talks about how teachers and professors in today’s society should embrace video games as a learning tool. I agree wholeheartedly considering the plethora of potential possibilities that can be created on these platforms. Teachers can easily monitor video games in a classroom, making them a good creative outlet that can be both structured and secure. According to research by the NPD group, 91% of kids age 2-17 are playing video games as of October 2011. Taking this statistic into account, why not take advantage of this “new” medium and implement educational games into the curriculum?

     While researching how video games are changing the education system, I came across an infographic that explains just that: http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/08/25/how-video-games-are-changing-education/. There is one section in the infographic that shows how video games, computer games, and apple devices apps can teach literacy, science, geography, logic and history, as well as creativity, mathematics and communication. Some games, such as Super Brain Tease, Dr. Seuss’s ABC and Math Bingo are more obvious educational games, while games such as Drawn to Life, Angry Birds and SimCity may not immediately come to mind when thinking about education. The chart also includes the game Civilization III, which Squire discussed in his article, saying that although the game may not have been initially designed as an educational game, it can be used for educational purposes in reference to how civilizations are started and maintained. That being said, many games can be analyzed in this matter and given an educational quality or element that would make them beneficial for students to play rather than being a distraction or a waste of time, as some parents or teachers might see them.