Educators turning to video games amid covid-19 pandemic
Educators turning to video games amid covid-19 pandemic
Educators turning to video games amid covid-19 pandemic
By Elise Favis
April 15, 2020
Summary
Péloquin isn't alone in investigating the potential of video games as education during the covid-19 crisis.
Teachers are utilizing widely played games like Roblox and Minecraft to demonstrate scientific principles like climate change or cellular biology, and those games' publishers are making their platforms as accessible as possible to educators during the crisis.
As teachers around the world seek creative ways to engage homebound students with coursework, video games are aiding that effort.
Péloquin was one of the many educators to reach out about using Ubisoft's games for remote learning.
Stadia has since offered its pro membership free to anyone with a Gmail account, with nine games included in a bundle at no additional cost.
The game launched an education mode in 2016, which Microsoft has since made free for educators and students through June 2020 due to the pandemic.
Roblox, a platform with 120 million active users and recently valued at $4 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, lets players create their own video games from scratch through an accessible platform aimed at young users.
Roblox has previously teamed up with over 170 educators from 35 different countries to discuss applications for the game, but those partnerships have become even more focused during the pandemic.
Within this PlayStation 4 game, you can build your own digital worlds or play games made by others.
Péloquin, who first considered games as an educational vehicle after observing promising results from a University of Montreal study that examined knowledge retention from Assassin's Creed: Origins Discovery Tour, believes video games have a unique quality, letting students "Dive into their imagination."
Reference
Favis, E. (2020, April 15). With coronavirus closing schools, here's how video games are helping teachers. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/15/teachers-video-games-coronavirus-education-remote-learning/