What Is Game-Based Learning? Top Reasons to Use Video Games in Education

What Is Game-Based Learning? Top Reasons to Use Video Games in Education

Every week we spend billions of hours on video games. Although many people in certain quarters believe it to be a waste of time and prefer to focus on its so-called negative consequences, there is more than enough proof of the positive impact of video games across various sectors. It’s also fitting that the demographic likely to spend the most time playing video games is also the one that enjoys its biggest positive. This is because video games are becoming increasingly important in the educational sector, similar to the rise of essay writing services like assignment help online. 

Understanding why video games have become so popular is important to understanding the concept of game-based learning.

One of the major reasons why video games are so popular now, especially in education, is that it meets our psychological needs. Many people now consider gamification a science, and it’s backed up by psychology. 

Gamification involves using game elements, like achievement and points earning, in other settings, such as education. This is the foundation on which the use of video games in education is built. 

There are many reasons why games tend to attract people. Some of these are:

• Games have clearly defined goals. Ordinarily, we’re left to make our decisions and create and pursue our goals in the real world. However, you don’t have to worry about setting goals with games. The goals are clearly defined, and you know what you must do to get them. 
• It helps to feel productive. You feel productiveness as you progress through the game, knowing you’re hitting your goals. This is everyone’s psychological need, and gaming can help to fill that void. Translating this concept into education can help bridge the game between gaming progress and real-life progress.
• It causes dopamine release in the brain as you get rewarded with achievements, badges and new gears. 
• It starts simple and becomes harder as you progress. This way, it’s easier to enter into a state of flow where you focus intensely on a task without accounting for time. 

Some games have a strong social aspect that attracts people and ensures they spend time with their new friends online. All of these are making video games popular, coupled with the fact that it’s entertaining, challenging, and rewarding at the same time. 

Why you should use video games in education?

If you’re not already convinced about how impactful video games can be for education, here are some reasons that can convince you.

1. It helps students stay within STEM.

We need to start creating a STEM workforce for the future, and video games can help us achieve this. Students often switch or drop from STEM subjects because introductory courses, like calculus, are considered too difficult. Using video games to help them learn these courses makes it easier for them to succeed and continue their STEM studies.

2. It makes learning experiential.

Several 21st-century skills, like creative problem-solving skills, are crucial for students to learn as part of the future workforce. Games like DragonBox Algebra, in which the students have to solve mathematical problems within a fantasy environment, can help you achieve this. This game also helps the student to improve their critical thinking skills.

There are many other games for students to learn experientially. In Civilization, they can become civic leaders in charge of a nation’s prosperity. Practicing and gaining knowledge and skills through experiential learning in games is more effective than in the traditional classroom setting.

3. Students can learn from their failures.

When gaming, students tend to fail several times, but they try each time again. So, gaming is an effective and natural way for students to fail naturally and safely. Then they learn from their failures and keep trying hard until they succeed.

Some games, such as Burnout Paradise, make it appear fun to fail while trying. This game allows you to crash your cars; the bigger your crash, the more points you get. This way, you can learn from your mistakes and try again.

Losing in a video game is one of the things that make video games very engaging. When you lose in a game, you tend to feel inadequate, but you want to try again immediately to redeem yourself and improve your skill set.

4. Students are engaged in the content.

Students only spend about 60% of their time in the classroom. Also, there’s only a marginal improvement in the learning time when the school day is extended. So, there has to be a better way to improve the amount of time maximized for classroom learning. This can happen by engaging time on task. By ensuring that the students care about or are interested in the topic you’re teaching, they will be engaged out of curiosity because they know it’s relevant to them. This naturally improves the learning experience.

While teachers can still engage their students in the classroom, they need to find other ways to engage and motivate them for homework. An effective way to do this is through gaming. If educational games are designed for engagement and motivation, students will spend more time engaged in a task.

5. It’s easier and more fun to learn complex things.

Several educational theories believe that students have to construct knowledge in their minds which can’t be given. Learners must build on past knowledge and concepts they understand to create more complex or higher-level knowledge and make it theirs.

For instance, many students struggle to remember the periodic table of elements, but middle school students can easily complete a complex 3-dimensional matrix with 27,624 values because of a video game called Pokemon. This game allows you to figure out the combination of 17 types of attacks in battle against other Pokemon. Each Pokemon can use one or two attack types. You learn about the possible combination by playing the game, not studying a table with over 27,000 entries. This game allows the student to gradually develop core skills like abstract thinking, literacy, and sportsmanship while also developing a deeper knowledge of the game.

In addition to these, there are also other cognitive benefits that video game has for students, such as:

6. Memory enhancement

Gaming exercises the memories as you’re required to remember the rules, objectives, game control, and other details about the plot, setting, and character. There are also games created specifically to boost memory.

7. Problem-solving skills

Regular gaming improves your problem-solving ability because of the several challenges you must overcome to achieve your goal in each game. Students simply focus on winning and get immersed in the game without realizing they’re improving at solving problems.

Conclusion
Video games in education are the way to go now. There are too many physical and mental benefits for it to be ignored. It makes learning easier and more fun, and students can learn from their failures without feeling like a failure.

Tiffany Harper is a training guru who’s been working in the corporate sector as a technology expert for several years now. She is a management graduate and loves to share her experience through blogs and articles. For her love of writing, she provided online consultations for dissertation help while working with expert writers.

This is a paid guest post.