Video+Games

=Educational Video Games=

The truth is, there hasn't been much research on educational video games despite the fact they've been around for about 30 years. Small surveys indicate that children who play **educational** video games are **less likely** to suffer from **attention problems** at school than children who play **violent** video games. (Hastings et al, 2009). Results of some studies say that playing action video games may improve visual-spatial skills. Other studies say that a handful of video games help boost **working memory capacity**.

**Why bother with yet another gimmick?** **Don't we have enough STUFF?** According to Merrilea Mayo (2009), video games  James Paul Gee says,"The popularity of difficult, complex video games demonstrates that programmers have achieved what many traditional approaches to education have failed to do. They’ve hit on “profoundly good methods of getting people to learn and to enjoy learning” (Gee 2005).
 * break down tasks into small steps
 * give learners immediate feedback
 * can be adapted to the needs of the learner (differentiation!)

Yep. They are a problem. Beware of games that 
 * What about junk educational games? **
 * tell learners if you tilt a square on a vertex it's no longer a square but a diamond!
 * don't allow learners to come up with more than one or a few solutions to a math problem; anything other than what the game comes up with is wrong
 * games that don't allow for flexible feedback
 * games with fluffy elements of education such as games that have kids shoot down particular numbers
 * What are examples of well-designed educational games?**

+**Quest Atlantis**: It's a 3-D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) game aimed at children 9-16. Players as avatars engage in interactive simulations. For example, the avatars have to handle challenges such as a polluted river that must be cleaned up.

Does it work? Research by Barab et al (2009) says it does. In the study, students who learned by playing such games did much better on multiple-guess (sorry, multiple-choice) and open-ended sections of a test than students who studied an electronic textbook.

How can we get Quest Atlantis? : It's available only to schools. Individuals can't subscribe or buy the game on their own.

+Whyville is a virtual world aimed at children ages 8-14. As in Quest Atlantis, players create avatars and navigate the world as they wish. It has a WebKinz look to it. School subjects featured in the game are art history, civics, economics and ocean science. It’s FREE!

+**NASA** has educational games. Most of them are quick and casual games of logic, memory and math. They're FREE!

+**SimCity** probably wasn't intended for educational use but it can be whatever you want to make of it. With guidance (as with all games), SimCity can be used to teach about budgets and government decisions. There's a FREE version!

+The [|History Canada game,] set in 16th century Canada, is a simulation game for pre-teens and teens. It's based on Sid Meier's Civilization III.

+The [|Nobel prize organization's free educational video games] include “The Diabetic Dog Game” teaches kids about caring for a living thing with a disease. The “Lord of the Flies” is based on the novel by William Golding and attempts to teach about getting along in a society.

+Runescape--Some folks would argue that Runescape is an educational game. I'm not so sure about that just yet. There is an economy system and there are side games that require some brains to play. There's more than a fair amount of violence plus there are no separate child-friendly "islands" of play that I'd suggest. Label me a prude. Try it yourself. By the way, I suppose you could call Runescape an MUVE; however, it calls itself an MMORG (multiplayer online role-playing game) Same-same but different.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">+Muzzy Lane--I haven't quite wrapped my brain around this one. The project seems to have the ideal simulation game at heart. It's mostly for students in middle school and up. It's forte is 3-D environments that allow users to experience history and science. One example is a role play of an immigrant textile mill worker in 1906. The character (student) faces everyday challenges in the midst of growing labor unrest. With partners such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Pearson, and DARPA, Muzzy Lane can't miss, can it?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">And now for the wee ones. A recommended quality game for children in kindergarten to 2 is the DreamBox Learning program which reinforces math skills. DreamBox ain't free. It can be had for $59.95 for a 6-month subscription.

Source: Parenting Science: Educational Video Games http://www.parentingscience.com/educational-video-games.html by Gwen Dewar accessed online June 4, 2010. Here is a list of references Dr. Dewar used in her article: (Try accessing EBSCO Host using the school's library site.)

References: Educational video games Barab SA, Scott B, Siyahhan S, Goldstone R, Ingram-Goble A, Zuiker S, and Warren S. 2009. Transformational play as a curricular scaffold: Using videogames to support science education. Journal of Science Education and Technology 18: 305-32 Barab SA, Gresalfi M, and Arici A. 2004. Why educators should care about games. Educational Leadership 67(1): 76-80. Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput. 36(2):234-40. Clements DH and Sarama J. 2000. Young children’s ideas about geometric shapes. Teaching Children Mathematics 6(8): 482-487.Gee JP. 2005. Learning by Design: good video games as learning machines. E–Learning 2(1):5-16. Hastings EC, Karas TL, Winsler A, Way E, Madigan A, Tyler S. 2009. Young children's video/computer game use: relations with school performance and behavior. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 30(10):638-49