What if education is built into the game? This can greatly facilitate the learning process for students. However, games are not the only way to do this. Students can also use a special essay writing app like Essayshark. Experts will help you complete any task quickly and efficiently. Learning will become much easier.
Why are we playing?
From the point of view of evolution, the human brain is imprisoned for constant development. The ability to think logically helps us choose the most favorable scenarios for the future and therefore survive. In this sense, games are an ideal way to improve many skills without endangering human life. After all, in fact, the brain does not care if the task is real. The main thing is to solve it. You need to find logic and patterns and develop new neural connections.
Every time we successfully complete another level in a game or learn a new skill, dopamine is released. Thanks to it and other hormones of happiness, gaming feels like a fun and enjoyable activity that you want to return to. In addition, dopamine helps the body fight stress and depression. Therefore, for many, time at the computer after work becomes not just entertainment but also partly salvation from the experiences and complexities of life.
How do games make us better?
By regularly studying in games, we develop the ability to learn in the general sense. Therefore, from the point of view of pumping skills, it is useful to choose games that combine many mechanics. Globally, each genre in gaming is focused on the development of several key abilities. For example, in strategies, players have to constantly work with a large amount of information and quickly respond to new circumstances. This makes them more resistant to stress, helps them think logically, set priorities correctly, and manage the allotted time.
In role-playing games, we constantly interact with other players and form teams to be more effective. Due to this, communication skills and organizational and coordinating skills are developed. In addition, the successful completion of such games has a good effect on self-esteem due to the assessment that we receive from other players.
Game-based learning became more noticeable – a type of gameplay during which the user gains skills or knowledge. We will talk about the basic principles of this approach.
Principle 1. The student tries on the role of the character
In game-based learning, the student perceives the main character as themselves and solves their problems and tasks. Thus, the guys indirectly receive knowledge, without which it will be impossible to win the game.
Principle 2: Play is the basis for educational content
In game-based learning projects, the game process itself is in the first place. The plot develops, the character develops, and there is progress. Training is built into the game as a sideline. The student comes into the game to play, not to learn, so the learning elements need to be integrated seamlessly to complement the main story.
At the same time, the result of the game is new knowledge and the consolidation of skills, the acquisition of which takes time: students train to add and subtract faster in a column, more freely operate with units of length, time, area, and mass.
Principle 3. The goal of the student is to have fun
In game-based learning, the student has clear goals:
- pass the level;
- defeat the “boss”;
- go through the whole game.
A student understands that it will be possible to pass all the levels only if they follow the rules. When playing, they do not aim to improve mathematics; it is more interesting for them to move forward in the game.
Principle 4. Teaching takes into account the motivation of the student
Usually, adults study to earn more: new skills and knowledge open up access to new career levels, which, in turn, are associated with a higher level of income. High school students study to pass exams well and enter the coveted university. How to work with the motivation of primary and secondary school children?
Game-based learning helps to cope with this task: educational games have a well-thought-out, interesting story that captures the attention of the child, unexpected plot twists, and a modern, while age-adapted visual.
Principle 5. Remuneration directly affects course completion
In most gamified courses, the reward affects the learning process indirectly. For example, a rating among other students may spur some people to do the next test better, but for others, it will be just information.
In game-based learning, the reward system is closed. This means that for a successfully completed level, the player is rewarded with a new, even more interesting level, character leveling, or side quests.
This approach encourages the player to keep playing. New plot twists, new locations, and character upgrades, such as a stronger hit that they can make after an n-th number of finished tasks, show the user’s growth inside the game. Usually, the player wants to get everything at once, but they have to choose what is more important to spend the earned points on right now.
“What will happen next?” – this is the main question of the gameplay.
Popular learning games or games with educational elements
Minecraft: Education Edition (6+)
This is the version with built-in chemistry study: during the game, users will learn about the chemical composition of tools and the interaction of substances with each other.
Adventure Academy (6+)
You can create school clubs in tree houses in this multiplayer game. Training takes place through small games in slot machines: points are awarded for each correctly completed task. You can spend them on changing the appearance of your character.
Twelve a Dozen (12+)
The game teaches arithmetic: you need to solve addition and subtraction problems to go further.
The Oregon Trail (12+)
The protagonist leads a group of settlers to Oregon and, in the course of the story, makes serious strategic decisions. The game is dedicated to the development of the Wild West in the United States.
As you can see, games have a positive effect on learning. Moreover, there are more and more games aimed at obtaining the skills necessary for studying. Therefore, take this approach because games are not only helpful but also an enjoyable pastime.