Video Games: Can They be Educational?

What would be more interesting to do, read a textbook about economics, or go have some fun playing games? Many people would prefer playing games because it is more fun and entertaining. However, many people, especially parents, say that video games are harmful to their children, causing low grades in schools, and promoting negative emotions. Video games can both have negative and positive features, such as education; it is just a matter of choosing the right types of games. In the last 30 years, video games have been a popular youth culture hobby that can promote education to those who play.

Video Games can encourage people think in a different way. James Gee, Ph.D., has done an interview on the learning concept of video games. He is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education at UW-Madison. He is also an author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. He argues that games are a very well designed learning machine that can get someone to learn well from them. Many games have been designed to make people think about complex schemes to solve problems in this perplexed world, and not just learning about simple science or geography. He states that we can learn from playing games, but also the games can be good tools for getting people to learn. Video games can teach concepts that many schools do not teach. For example, games can go into more in-depth when it comes to testing, deeper learning, and conceptual learning. Commercial games have learning skills that are important in the modern world. Specific games can teach specific subjects, such as history. History is a composite subject to learn, and many students do not enjoy themselves reading about someone that lived centuries ago. The game has certain goals that cause players to have that motivation to achieve those goals. The motivation in the game is what makes games so entertaining because the players like the world they are in. Why many players like to play is because they are in a different world, with different people, and different environment.