Electronic entertainment has come a long way from simple time killers to exciting and even useful mediums that can teach us a lesson or two. Let’s see how games improve education worldwide.
Video games have become an integral part of our lives and culture. They are no longer just a pastime for kids – modern games are more than entertainment; they are art that combines technical expertise and human creativity into a single product.
Naturally, modern developers and educators are exploring the possibility of using video games for development and education, and they’re already are tons of kids educational games school teachers use to make education more entertaining and interactive, but does it really work? Let’s see how interactive games for students can change modern education.
Modern Educational Games
Let’s face it, the vast majority of educational games we have right now are dull and really uninspiring. Some might go as far as to say that actually doing your homework is more fun than playing. Students who actually love gaming would rather buy assignments and keep on playing their favorite games. Of course, when you buy assignments online from services such as Writix, you get a chance to do whatever you want in your spare time, but there’s a chance to make it actually entertaining and useful for your studies.
Naturally, there are examples of successful use of computer games in education; for instance, flight schools have been using flight simulators, which are basically overly complicated and specialized video games, during classes for years. Those simulators help the students practice their skills without actually risking an actual aircraft. Surgeons are now using VR and AR games to study the human body, so you can tell the games have found a viable way into education.
Can We Do Better?
The entertainment industry, including game development, spends billions of dollars each year trying to come up with new ways to keep us satisfied and happy. But what if we could allocate some portion of that immense amount of money into improving college and university education? What if we could use AI in law schools to simulate a courtroom hearing and help law students practice their persuasion skills and knowledge without impacting actual human lives? Of course, life is the best teacher, but it is much safer and cheaper to practice on dummies.
Electronic entertainment can also help engineers and architects to develop their skills in designing products or buildings. We can do literally anything to help people study better and make it more fun. For instance, we already have the Assassin’s Creed game series that takes us to the new historical period with each new installment.
Though the series takes some serious liberties in retelling the historical events, it would not be crazy to assume that millions of kids actually googled and read articles on certain events and historical figures just because they saw them in those games.
The Future of Entertainment and Education
Clearly, the industry shows no sight of slowing down, and we say for sure that there will be some serious improvements. With VR and AR technologies growing more popular and advanced, we can make an educated guess that those will be the dominant type of entertainment in the near future.
The value of this technology is in its ability to put a player or a student into all kinds of situations limited only by the creativity of the developers. Imagine supplementing your theory reading on the human anatomy with a VR trip inside the human body or studying biology having a chance to see inside the molecules. Any lesson would get so much more exciting.
Wrap Up
The good thing about electronic entertainment is that it is so much more than just time killers. Well, not all of them, but there are games that take us to another time and place and give us the power to shape the world around us in ways that are simply impossible in real life.
It is only natural that we look for ways to make this amazing technology more practical and extract some utilitarian value from it. Soon, educational games will be in every school, and hopefully, they will help the students study more effectively.