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Any Video Game can be Educational

Inspired by this infographic from e-Learning, if gamification techniques can be beneficial in an educational context, then why are they sometimes considered as negative influences on children when they are in the natural setting – games?

Commonly, newspaper headlines will argue the negative impacts that video games can have on children and how parents need to clamp down to stop their children from becoming addicted, or violent, or socially isolated. But the gaming experience can be beneficial.

The key concepts for parents with video games are moderation and awareness.

Moderation: like any form of entertainment or activity, if children are allowed to play video games any time they want, for as long as they want, it can be problematic.

Awareness: again, as with any activity, it is important parents are aware of what their children are consuming. As with all media, games come with age ratings and can feature content that children cannot fully understand or contextualise. By engaging with their child’s gaming, parents can restrict inappropriate content and introduce more controversial game genres as the child matures and is developed enough to handle it.

With those points aside, the same positive aspects of games that have been re-purposed wherever gamification is applied can be taken directly from playing video games. Concepts such as critical thinking, problem solving, rewards for progression and opportunities to repeat failures in order to learn success, and many more, can be extracted from traditional games in an educational way.

 

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Bibliography:

e-Learning Infographics, (2014). Video Games Can Be Positive For Kids Infographic – e-Learning Infographics. [online] Available at: http://elearninginfographics.com/video-games-can-positive-kids-infographic/ [Accessed 23 Jan. 2016].