The Middle Years

The subject matter addressed in the games for the middle years audience is lot more broad then that for pre-schoolers and kindergarteners. There are games about your usual school subjects like math and science and there are also logic games and games about building cars and time travel. Whatever your weakness is there is probably a game to help improve it (or teach it to you for the first time).

Are educational games being used by teachers in the classroom? I think it depends on the teacher. Are you a classroom teacher? If so, do you use video games to teach or reinforce certain subject areas?

Some games definitely could be used in the classroom. There appears to be lots of worthy educating games available, lots even free of charge. For example check out http://www.knowledgeadventure.com/. They bought out the original Math Blaster (it was a popular math learning game created in 1987).

Are they being used? Maybe another question to ponder is “are they being abused?” Are teachers handing the reigns over to the computer to do their job in educating the students? I am sure it can be done without realizing it. One of the biggest complaints of teachers is –time – and how there is never enough of it. Well, having the students learn various things from a computer game would free up some time for the teacher, right? Well, maybe. I am sure there are teachers out there who direct their students to some gaming website and let them go at it for an extended period of time. Sure. But, in order to incorporate learning games into your curriculum effectively it actually requires a lot of time, preparation and research.

Things you need to think about to incorporate learning games:
-Your resources: the speed and size of the computers available to your students
- The subject matter: what types of games are available?
- The students: will the game you choose appeal to most of your students, keeping in mind the age group and things like gender differences. If it’s a shoot ‘em up game, the girls may not be so enthused although if it’s a cooking game, the boys may not be into it (I know I’m generalizing but you know what I mean).
- Time: how long does it take to play?

It all of a sudden doesn’t sound so easy, does it? I’m not suggesting it’s hard to incorporate these games, I’m just saying in order to do it right, there’s a lot to consider.