Games and fun

1. Games can be useful in supporting real-world skills and knowledge because in order to succeed you need to socialize. One of the most important contributors to having a great avatar in World of Warcraft is to maintain social networks with others. Through networking, players learn to negotiate and become advocates to social change through the games. It also requires critical thinking skills and problem solving skills to make the best decisions in order to succeed.
2. Serious games can promote learning because “learning designers have unique opportunities to make a significant contribution to game design teams by organizing game play to focus on changing, in a predefined way, the beliefs, skills, and/or behaviors of those who play the game, while preserving the entertainment aspects of the game experience”. Also, games motivate players to spend time on task and keep performing skills that would make them master a level.
3. Incorporating games into a learning environment can be a little challenging to teachers. They have to look for games that can be related to the class content. But once they find these games, it is just assigning it to students to become better. When I was in third grade, every week or so, students were allowed to play Reader Rabbit for reading and math. This games helps with simple mathematics problems and stories that required for us to pay attention to since there was an assessment.
4. Civic learning opportunities are measured through the impact that games have on teens’ likelihood to become involved in civic and political activities.
5. Game-play is related to teens’ interest in civic and political activities because it requires for them to reach out to others in order to maintain high points. In Sim City for example they learn about economics and they can see how a city can manage with certain budgets. They can then apply what they learn in Sim City and analyze what the government is doing in their area to see if there are ideas to better the economy. It is also related since they have the tendency to be involved in fundraisers and persuade others into voting.

Advertisement