Digital innovations also pose challenges for parents. Children would rather be on their cell phones or computers than learning. But what if you could combine these elements?
Parents regularly have a crisis. In her opinion, children are constantly on their smartphones. Instead of watching funny videos for hours or gaming all day, adults want more learning time and commitment to school. A model project in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin has now shown that computer games encourage children to learn across subjects. The initiator of “Games Make School” is the Berlin Digital Games Culture Foundation.
In Berlin, ten schools with 16 grade 8 classes took part. A total of 400 students were allowed to play for science. The focus was on the subjects German, English, mathematics and history.
Learn playfully with video games
The Digital Gaming Culture Foundation has developed special curricula for this purpose. The teaching materials were developed by experts from the Freiburg University of Education. The local center for didactic computer game research has for some time been running a database of games that are particularly suitable for use in teaching.
The experts selected the following computer games for the project:
- German: A Normal Lost Phone
- English: Gone Home
- Mathematics: Mario Kart Tour
- History: Brass
The curricula developed for each subject and game have been linked to different objectives. Simply gaming would have made about as much sense as watching TV all day without commentary and then selling it as media education.
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Teachers praise the project
The astonishing result: 71 percent of the teachers reported to the Digital Gaming Culture Foundation that the entire student body was highly motivated. The result may not seem particularly surprising at first glance.
However, the teachers involved in the project almost unanimously described that the young people had found easier access to certain teaching topics and learning about them through the video games. This was particularly noticeable among students who had previously been rather shy and reluctant to follow lessons.
However, teachers rate the benefits of the four games selected for the project differently. The experts from the University of Education in Freiburg have deliberately selected games that are more for entertainment.
Praise and blame for the game selection
For example, some history teachers doubt whether their class actually learned anything about industrialization and its historical effects from playing the game “Brass,” according to the Digital Gaming Culture Foundation. Nevertheless, other talents were trained for this purpose, which in turn are helpful for other subjects. The students solved problems or tasks that arose in the game together, according to the project report. This ability will help later in every school subject.
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Of all things, all teachers rated the designated entertainment game “Mario Kart Tour” as particularly positive. The math aspect of this game was to train knowledge of statistics and probability. The two terms alone would lead to spontaneous sleep attacks for most students in normal lessons. In the context of Super Mario, however, the enthusiasm for these topics knows no bounds.
Most gamers have probably never noticed: In “Mario Kart Tour,” competitors encounter certain things like turtle shells, turbo mushrooms or banana peels. Things don’t appear randomly, but according to a certain probability. What is particularly striking is that the leading racers receive “bad” items much more often. The participating classes in “Games Make School” can now recite the appropriate calculation in their sleep. At the same time, everyone involved had a lot of fun developing the formula themselves in addition to gaming.
IT reality in schools is below average
Due to the positive experiences, the teachers involved in the project would also like to see computer games more integrated into pedagogical training. 85 percent were in favor of it, reports the Digital Gaming Culture Foundation.
However, such plans are currently failing due to the IT reality in most schools. In many cases there is a lack of suitable educators. However, it became clear during the project that the technical requirements at many schools are in the range of poor to insufficient.
In some cases the teachers had to use private computers. Such games may not be installed on devices provided by the school. In addition, there was often a lack of a suitable network connection. Here too, the teachers had to help out with private routers.
This is how video games can help with learning
The gaming industry has long focused on school education. The popular building block game “Minecraft” has had one for some time School platform with special worlds for use in lessons. The action-adventure series “Assassin’s Creed” offers so-called discovery tours. Certain historical eras can be played and experienced. In addition to the games, there is also a little knowledge to go for the students. The strategy game “Through the darkest of Times” has recently been attracting attention. The gamer takes on the role of a leader of a resistance group during the Nazi era.
The game has garnered positive response due to its realism. Very often players find themselves in situations where there is no “right” or “best” solution. Even if in this case the horror of the Nazi dictatorship can only be experienced virtually. A tip for teachers: Tobias Hübner works as a teacher of German and religion. About his blog “Media studiesHe regularly provides information about free work materials and instructions on how to use computers and computer games sensibly in lessons.