Can video games be used in education?

The use of video games has made rivers of ink flow in recent times, almost always warning of the dangers that their abuse entails.

However, more and more voices affirm that beyond this negative part, video games can and should be used for educational purposes. In these paragraphs we will delve into this issue and the main arguments that support it.

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Can video games be used to educate?

Since videogames became popular, especially from the 1980s, and have reached a growing market share since then, many sectors have demonized them. They alerted (and alert) of a series of consequences, many of them unfounded, that children could suffer simply by dedicating their leisure time to this activity.

But in contrast to these harsh criticisms, other professionals ask themselves a question: can video games be used in education? And it is that, if we are talking about an entertainment medium that a large part of children adore, Why not take advantage of it as a means to bring them closer to didactic content, which otherwise would not be attractive to them?

Other digital media have been gradually introduced into the classroom, as audio CDs and movies did at the time, whether they were specifically created for informative use or others that also served to educate for the subject they dealt with, and finally the use of computers, electronic whiteboards and other devices. The logical thing is to think that video games can also be very useful if you know how to use them.

Some experts do not doubt this positive effect. The key is to know at what moments of teaching the use of video games should be used as a support method for the traditional lesson and thus consolidate knowledge. In addition, there are different ways of approaching video games, something that we will see in detail in the next point.

Different methodologies

Once we are clear about its usefulness, the next question we could ask ourselves is in what ways can videogames be used in education. According to the intention with which they have been created, we can establish the following classification.

1. classic games

The first category that we would find is that of classic video games, that is, games that have been created with a playful intention, but due to its plot or the elements that are handled, teachers can also extract a didactic utility. Depending on the matter to be dealt with, you can find a multitude of examples. A case would be that of video games set in a certain historical period, which help to immerse yourself in the characteristics and events of that period.

There are many examples of historically themed video games, from the abundant war genre, where the Call of Duty, Medal of Honor or Battlefield, to those of the Wild West, like Red Dead Redemption or those that deal with different eras, like Assassin's Creed, Age of Empires or civilization. The examples are many, although obviously some will delve deeper into the historical context than others, where you will tiptoe.

It is important to keep in mind that video games, like any other piece of entertainment, such as movies or books, They do not necessarily have to be faithful to reality or historically accurate and therefore may introduce some or many fictional elements into its plot and context. Therefore, it will be an important task for the teacher to point out those fictitious elements, so as not to create erroneous learning.

But also They can be games as different and apparently simple as Minecraft is., which can perfectly be used to explain to the little ones some concepts about geometry that on paper they could be more complex or tedious, and that through the screen they are much more attractive.

Another example could be the SimCity simulator or other similar (Theme Park, Theme Hospital or Caesar), where the player gradually creates a city and discovers the needs of the citizens and the difficulties involved in managing a territory, even when they are as simplified as within the parameters of a videogame.

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2. Games adapted for education

Sometimes game developers take advantage of a work already created to generate an adaptation adapted to the school world. This is the case of the aforementioned Assassin's Creed saga. These famous video games have released installments set in historical moments as different as the War of the Peloponnese, ancient Egypt, the time of the crusades, Renaissance Italy, Ming dynasty China, and further.

Said saga, after having devastated its purely playful modality, has decided to take advantage of its potential and create some modes specific to promote teachings about the historical moments in which some of their deliveries. They are the so-called discovery tours, modes in which the player can explore the open world of that time, with no specific objective other than to admire the historical details.

In the case of the tour proposed in the Odyssey delivery, the student has the opportunity to discover Ancient Greece in all its splendor, visiting almost thirty different locations, also enjoying two audio-guides that will further expand the teachings of this video game. As if that were not enough, at the end of each of these levels, a small knowledge test is proposed to verify that the player / student has integrated the data.

Another video game that had already been mentioned in the previous point would be Minecraft, a game based on interaction with a three-dimensional world made of cubes with different textures. The developers of this video game, as was the case with those of Assassin's Creed, have created an exclusive mode for educational contexts.

This game has the advantage of being especially popular among the little ones, so it is an extraordinary way to bring different concepts closer to children through recreational activities and in this way pay great attention and therefore retain new knowledge in a more efficient way with respect to educational methodologies traditional.

3. Games created for educational purposes

Other developers have tried to answer the question of whether videogames can be used in education in a different way: creating videogames with a totally didactic objective. These are tools designed for educational use, which may be fine in the classroom., so that the teacher is the one who guides the activity or in the child's own home, so that they can use it with the support of their parents or even by themselves.

There are many video games that have been created for this purpose, although logically their scope is more localized in the world. academic and in families, so they do not have as much impact as the great works of entertainment interactive. Some examples could be the Knowledge Adventure saga, which proposes the exploration of different scenarios of nature, Reading Rabbit, where children are helped to learn to read, write or handle simple concepts mathematicians.

Another series of videogames created expressly for education would be those of GCompris. This saga proposes different games depending on the educational subject that you want to work on. For this, it has a whole range of options that go from algebra or reading to geography, natural sciences, or even office tasks, animation, puzzle games, memory games, chess and others.

these video games They are designed so that even 2-year-olds can have their first experiences with these interactive activities., since they are totally adapted to their capacities. They have modes that increase in complexity so that they can be a challenge for older children, thus offering very entertaining activities for children up to 10 years of age.

Another advantage of the GCompris videogames is that they are free software programs, so anyone You can download them and even edit them to be able to adapt them to the wishes and needs of the family in concrete. In this way it is accessible for free to people from anywhere in the world simply with an internet connection to obtain the files.

4. simulators

Although it seems that video games are new elements in educational contexts, the truth is that, Beyond the classrooms of the schools, these tools were already being used in other areas that in some way were also formative, although it was not in the children's field. This is the case, for example, of simulators, both flight and driving, which are used to train pilots in very specific situations.

For example, Formula-1 drivers use this type of software to be able to test certain maneuvers or to gain in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of a circuit. But the simulator tour goes much further. And it is that NASA itself and other space agencies use these tools to be able to anticipate possible situations that may occur in a mission beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Bibliographic references:

• Aguilar, L., Adell, F. (2018). Evaluation instrument of an educational video game that facilitates the learning of prosodic and communication skills. Distance Education Magazine.
• Etxeberria, F. (2008). Videogames, consumption and education. Editions University of Salamanca.
• Martínez, J.M., Egea, A., Arias, L. (2018). Evaluation of an educational video game with historical content. The opinion of the students. RELATEC - Latin American Magazine of Educational Technology.