Can video games be used in education?

What is the educational potential of video games, beyond their recreational use?

The use of video games has caused rivers of ink to flow in recent times, almost always warning of the dangers involved in their abuse.

However, more and more voices more and more voices are claiming that beyond this negative side, video games can and should be used for educational purposes.. In these paragraphs we will deepen on this question and the main arguments that support it.

Can video games be used to educate?

Since video games became popular, especially from the 80's onwards, and reaching an increasing market share since then, many sectors have demonized them. They warned (and warn) of a series of consequences, many of them unfounded, that children could suffer simply for 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? If we are talking about a means of entertainment that a large part of children love, why not take advantage of it as a means to bring them educational content, which otherwise would not be attractive to them?

Other digital media have been progressively introduced in classrooms, such as audio CDs, movies, whether they were created specifically for educational use or others that also served to educate because of the subject matter they dealt with, and finally the use of computers, electronic whiteboards and other devices. It is logical 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 when to use video games as a method to support the traditional lesson and thus consolidate knowledge. In addition, there are different ways of approaching video games, something we will see in detail in the next point.

Different methodologies

Once we are clear about their usefulness, the next question we could ask ourselves is how video games can 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 we would find is that of classic video games, that is to say, games that have been created with a ludic intention.The plot or the elements that are handled, teachers can also extract a didactic utility from them. Depending on the subject to be treated, many examples can be found. One case would be that of video games set in a certain historical period, which help to immerse oneself in the characteristics and events of that period.

There are many examples of video games with a historical theme, from the abundant war genre, where the Call of Duty, Medal of Honor or Battlefield sagas stand out, to those of the Wild West, such as Red Dead Redemption, or those that deal with different eras, such as Assassin's Creed, Age of Empires or Civilization. The examples are many, although obviously some will delve more deeply into the historical context than others, where they will tiptoe around it.

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

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

Another example could be the SimCity simulator or other similar ones. (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 video game.

Games adapted for education 2.

Sometimes, video game developers take advantage of an already take advantage of an already created work 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 Peloponnesian War, ancient Egypt, the time of the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, China during the Ming dynasty, and more.

This saga, after having swept in its purely recreational mode, has decided to take advantage of its potential and create specific modes to promote the teachings about the historical moments in which some of its installments are developed. These are the so-called discovery tours, modes in which the player can explore the open world of that era, without a specific objective other than to admire the historical details.

In the case of the tour proposed in Odyssey, the student has the opportunity to get to know Ancient Greece in all its splendor.In the case of the tour proposed in the Odyssey installment, the student has the opportunity to get to know Ancient Greece in all its splendor, visiting almost thirty different locations and enjoying 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 check that the player / student has integrated the data.

Another video game already mentioned in the previous point was 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 Assassin's Creed, have created an exclusive mode for educational contexts..

This game has the advantage of being especially popular among children, so it is an extraordinary way to bring different concepts to children through playful activities and in this way they pay great attention and therefore retain new knowledge in a more efficient way compared to traditional education methodologies.

3. Games created for didactic purposes

Other developers have tried to answer the question of whether video games can be used in education in a different way: by creating video games with an entirely didactic purpose. These are tools designed for an educational use, which can be either in the classroomThe 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 academic world and families, so they do not have as much impact as the great works of interactive entertainment. Some examples could be the Knowledge Adventure saga, which proposes the exploration of different nature scenarios, Rabbit Reader, where children are helped to learn to read, write or handle simple mathematical concepts.

Another series of video games created specifically for education are those of GCompris. This saga proposes different games depending on the educational subject to be worked on. For this purpose, it has a whole range of options ranging from algebra or reading to geography, natural sciences, or even office automation tasks, animation, puzzle games, memory games, chess and others.

These video games are designed so that even 2-year-old children can have their first experiences with these interactive activities, as they are fully adapted to their age.They are fully adapted to their capabilities. 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 old.

Another advantage of GCompris video games is that they are free software programs, so anyone can download them and even edit them to suit the wishes and needs of the particular family. In this way it is accessible free of charge to people from anywhere in the world simply with an internet connection to obtain the files.

4. Simulators

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

For example, Formula 1 drivers use this type of software to rehearse certain maneuvers or to get to know the characteristics of a circuit in depth. But the simulators go much further. NASA itself and other space agencies use these tools to anticipate possible situations that may occur in a mission beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

Bibliographic references:

• Aguilar, L., Adell, F. (2018). Evaluation instrument for an educational video game facilitating the learning of prosodic and communicative skills. Journal of Distance Education.
• Etxeberria, F. (2008). Video games, consumption and education. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
• Martínez, J.M., Egea, A., Arias, L. (2018). Evaluation of an educational video game with historical content. The students' opinion. RELATEC - Latin American Journal of Educational Technology.