Industry Sponsored Study Finds Games Useful In Education

[Sean Sands]

Industry Sponsored Study Finds Games Useful In Education

A study sponsored by industry giants Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Take Two has come to positive conclusions about using video games in an educational environment.

The study was conducted by the non-profit organization Futurelab, which is dedicated to "developing innovative learning resources and practices that support new approaches to education for the 21st century." According to the final report "The Teaching with Games project was a one-year study designed to offer a broad overview of teachers? and students? use of and attitudes towards commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer games in schools."

The findings [http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/teachingwithgames/findings.htm] of the study were largely broad in nature. It did find that some unspecified "technical problems" created difficulties, but that overall "teachers and students in the case studies generally reported that using games in lessons was motivating." In general, the final report hints at an untapped potential that will need the combined dedicated support of faculty and developers to be realized.

Source: Next Generation [http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3920&Itemid=2]

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[Lara Crigger]

What a surprise, that a study sponsored by the video game industry would find video games to have positive uses.

That being said, I think video games, by nature of their immersive capabilities, can be really useful in education. I still remember my Caribbean geography from the C64 version of Pirates!, and who doesn't remember dying of dysentary on The Oregon Trail? If nothing else, that game taught me about terrifying and dangerous bacterial diseases.

 

[Russ Pitts]

I had an economics teacher in high school who used a rudimentary supply/demand simulation game on his bank of donated TRaSh-80s to teach us the fundamentals of Keynesian economic theory back in the day. I think he even wrote the game himself.

Before that, in middle school, I'd learned a great deal about a great many things in the "computer lab" which was essentially a classroom stuffed with AppleIIEs; and before that, in elementary school, in a room that had been converted from a ballet studio into a "lab" stuffed with IBM clones. In both labs we played educational games, although I think the primary benefit of both educational experiences was an understanding and appreciation for the technology itself, which is obviously still with me more than 20 years later.

Those who fail to see the link between computers (and computer games) and learning are quite simply wrong. Just dead, plain wrong.

 

[Goofonian]

Those who fail to see the link between computers (and computer games) and learning are quite simply wrong. Just dead, plain wrong.

well said.