Learning Games: Using Play to Teach
Learning Games: Using Play to Teach
Learning Games: Using Play to Teach
By Clayton Whittle
May 28, 2021
Summary
Learning games, often associated with the idea of "Serious play", can refer to either games intentionally designed for learning or entertainment games used to teach.
Scholars are constantly studying new ways to employ games and discovering how those learning games affect the learning experience.
Sadly, the total focus on this aspect of games and learning was led to the "Edutainment" games movement.
The co-existence of challenge and learning in games is so core to play that many scholars argue that, once a player has nothing to learn, they are no longer challenged and disengage from the game.
As the learning games field continues to grow, the application of machine learning will only become more exciting!
The games for learning community remains involved in a great debate over the value and cost of specifically design learning games and learning by playing commercial games.
Commercial games are just what they sound like: games that are commercially available to the public.
The downside to such games is that they are not designed to teach, and therefore the target knowledge can get lost in the game play.
We like to think of learning games as games that were specifically built to teach something.
Kafai put forth that in order for games to teach knowledge playing the game must require use of that knowledge.
Reference
Whittle, C. (2021, May 28). Learning games: Using play to teach - nasaga serious games wiki. NASAGA. https://nasaga.org/learning-games-using-play-to-teach/