How can Games Support Education? – Games as an Important Teaching Tool

It can easily be said that digital games have the potential to be an important teaching tool because of their interactivity, engagement and immersion.

Serious games enable players to experience situations that otherwise would be impossible due to the cost, the amount of time, location and safety reasons. It mainly does this through the Simulation within the game that helps the players experience something that in the real world would be physically impossible to achieve. For example “Second Life” where you and create almost anything within a 3-dimensional fictional environment. Games can support education because they can provide a learning experience without the limitations of the real world.

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The Rationale for Using Games in Education – Underlying Teaching and Learning in Educational Games

The logical basis for using games in education would be that when shaped for education within serious games, they can help learners learn faster and easier then some other methods of teaching. Games have infinite possibilities and provide active learning where they are engaging learners in play rather then listening or reading. They have player agency and can be customized to a specific learner with adjustable difficulty levels and learning methods. They provide rapid feedback, allowing reflection, discovery and comprehension.

Serious games can help the players experience something that in the real world would be physically impossible to achieve. It’s creating an environment full of endless possibility, and within itself can become a classroom on its own. A solid argument can be made that serious games can, and is, providing education with an entirely new platform full of endless possibility. With this technology available to us now it’s only a matter of time before this needs to be implemented into all school systems.