What are the benefits of Gaming in Education

The social and psychological benefits of gaming

Do video games only lead to addictions, violent behaviors, lack of physical exercise and other terrible consequences in children? There has been a lot of criticism around gaming for children, but many studies suggest that playing domestic video games improves visual attention and spatial-motor skills.

Gaming is a fundamental learning method for the youngest generations, so it should play a crucial role in teachers’ programs.

On the other hand, the specific application of gaming in education generates a lot of benefits in the learning process. Generally, educational video games and simulators teach many skills such as algebra, biology, computer programming and flight training. In particular, simulation games can develop the children’s soft skills. They indeed may increase the children’s sense of selfesteem and improve socialization skills, leadership skills and team building.

Let’s see specificaly which are the benefits of learning through gaming, so that teachers and schools may comprehend the potential of integrating an educational gaming learning platform into their classroom.

Gaming is a social activity

Gaming stimulates students and children to play together. Many games require players to work together in teams to achieve goals or to compete against each other. In order to achieve that, students shall refine their communication skills: this will help them to establish better relationships and have high self-esteem.

Gaming improves critical thinking

Many classical literature teachers are bringing visualization games in the classroom to explain Odysseus’s journey. According to Paul Darvasi, “Alternate reality games can be used as an immersive learning system that combines rich narrative, digital technology, and real-world game play. Students must exercise critical thinking, resilience, and creative problem solving to succeed in an alternate reality game.”

Gaming teaches technical skills

Through video games, kids may get interested in technology very soon in their life. This is important for them to embed basic technical skills such as coding and programming, as we explored in the article about coding and Internet of Things.

Overall, gaming may create an educational future where teachers can recreate a more engaging and connected environment, and students may benefit to develop critical skills by attending exciting lessons.

Which are the benefits of learning through this video game?

• Students will be engaged in real world scenarios and lessons, so they can learn about sustainability, urban planning or energy.
• Students from age 10 up to university age will learn how to build, simulate and experiment, for example by setting up windturbines and measuring their effect.
• Students will have an immersive visual experience, so they will actually see how to build and experiment with a nuclear reactor.
• Teachers will be able to use platform built-in tools.

What is the difference between Game-Based Learning and Gamification?

Today gamification and game-based learning are buzzwords in education, but confusion still exists when we try to understand what each is and what each is not.

When we talk about gamification at school, we talk about the idea of applying some game elements to a non-game situation, using a scoring game mechanic to reward users for certain behaviors, for example, if a student helps a classmate, or if he completes an assigned task within a certain time.

Gamification has been integrated into education through systems like ClassCraft, which add adventure game layers on top of the existing course structure. Using these gamification systems, students are allowed to create their own character, play as part of a team, and earn experience points to be transformed into rewards, as an alternative to the traditional grading system.

On the other side, we can talk about game-based learning (or GBL), a practice that relates to the use of games to enhance the learning experience. In this case, the game becomes part of the learning process, and it is aimed at teaching a discrete skill or specific learning outcome while giving learners an engaging experience.

Game-based learning is characterized by fantasy elements and it uses competitive exercises in order to motivate students to learn better. GBL draws them into virtual environments that look and feel familiar and safe, environments where it is possible to choose actions, make mistakes and experience the consequences in a risk-free setting.