Online education has become the need of the hour. The face of education changed drastically in the light of the pandemic. From physical classrooms to online meets, from annual day celebrations in school to online webinars, workshops, etc, it has been altogether a different scenario. The next evolutionary level in virtual teaching can be video games. All these years, video games have been known for addiction and negative effects on children’s lives but with thoughtful use and slight tweaks in the storylines and features of games, developers have realized these can be used to make the world better.
A recent example of the same is Acer’s games in partnership with Buildaworld. These games have high-quality graphics and teachers can customize it according to the needs and learning levels of the children using in-game tools. The objective of these games is to simulate real-life examples using immersive visuals so that students can learn about various things for example nuclear reactors, building wind turbines, understanding sustainability, and energy planning, etc. This can open the students to a whole new world of opportunities.
Do you remember playing Tetris? It is a video game of different shapes of blocks and one has to survive by fitting them perfectly in the gaps. Fairly simple, right? One great developmental advantage of playing this game has been that players tend to visualize any object in 3D easily and are great at mentally rotating 2D objects. This can help in taking up careers in fields like architecture and design.
Another example is Minecraft, it has been known for its calming effects on children with ADHD as it provides an outlet and helps them in nurturing creativity. There is a separate minecraft server for people with autism which provides them a safe space to learn the dynamics of the game. Learning History from games! How does this sound? Well, a classic like the Age of Empire is the reason why a lot of gamers know about Phoenicians. It also had several eras diversified. Similarly, games to teach the history of a particular area can be designed.
These were a few specific examples of games that have proven to be useful in various ways. To top all of this, video games are a great medium to make relationships and socialize. Video games help in building confidence and competency. It instills the feeling of learning from failures and makes the child understand the importance of goal orientation. It also gives away a very important and basic pedagogical approach wherein tasks given to children can be broken into smaller tasks and their successful completion can be rewarded and complexity can be increased.
As every coin has two sides, so do video games. The widespread notion about games in the current scenario is negatively colored. The research in this field is relatively less. The mainstreaming of the application of video games in education will come at a high cost and will need to be highly contextualized for school-like learning to happen. Nevertheless, it is an interesting idea to see a future wherein the student’s homework is to advance in 5 levels of a video game.
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