Should video games be used in education?
Introduction
Many teachers use video games to make the teaching and learning
process more interesting and engaging. Part of class
discussions, as well as including timely and engaging exercises relating the
game to class material, can improve student performance and engagement.
Video games have been found to be more engaging; instead of
providing information over an extended class period, games provide small
amounts of information at relevant stages. Playing video games helps with
metacognition (which describes the ability to think about your own thinking);
strong metacognitive skills have been proven to help with developing academic
skills and allows students to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and
increase their performance.
Ways to use video games
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Video games is an interactive
video games in physical education, many of these types of games are not just
animated exercise. Many have different assessments and scores based on
performance of skills. Some have heart rate monitors and estimate caloric
expenditure. Others are designed with enhancing motor abilities in mind.
Abilities such as balance, hand-eye coordination, agility and core strength are
a few of the motor skills enhanced. These engaging and interactive games have
the ability to teach kids about the some physiological functions of the body.
One example is that these games can help show kids how their heart reacts to
different activities by using the heart rate monitor within the game.[14]ped students to identify and attempt to
correct their deficiencies.
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The adaptability of video games, and the control that players
have over them, motivate and stimulate learning.
·
In cases where students have difficulty concentrating, video games
can be highly useful.
·
The instant feedback given by video games helps arouse curiosity
and in turn allows for greater chances of learning.
·
Video games teach cooperation.
Conclusion
Commercial video games in general, referred to as commercial off the shelf (COTS) games, have been suggested as
having a potentially important role to assist learning in a range of crucial
transferable skills.[8] One example of this would be in first-person shooter games such as the Call
of Duty franchise
(although these games are violent by nature, and they have been subject to
massive negative reception by parents with varying justification). While
the Call of Duty franchise itself falls short of actual
tactical strategy or realism in depth, there are many games in the same genre (first-person
shooters) from which one can learn key skills from the games: they stimulate
the player at the cognitive level as they move through the level, mission, or
game as a whole.[8] They also teach strategy, as players need
to come up with ways to penetrate enemy lines, stealthily avoid the enemy,
minimize casualties, and so on. Players can test their usage of these skills
using the multiplayer aspect of these games. These games also allow players to
enhance their peripheral
vision, because they need to
watch for movement on the screen and make quick decisions about whether it is a
threat, to avoid wasting ammunition or harming allied players.
