5 Ways How Games Improve Student’s Education

Parents and teachers are afraid of a potentially negative video games effect on children’s education. Funny thing: they all grew up playing Super Mario Bros. They probably don’t remember most of the things they learned at school. But it’s not the video game’s fault.

The relation between video games and grades can be quite positive. Educational video games can inspire students to get more productive. They will learn through a fun process. Video games engage them without demanding a lot of effort.

Are you interested in the specific factors that make a video game effective?

5 Ways How Education Gets Better with Video Games

1. Games Encourage Social Activity

A report published by Pew Research Center highlighted interesting findings: gaming is a social experience. 65% of teens play with their friends.

Gaming is far from the asocial activity that most people assume it is. On the contrary; it helps students to improve the connection they have with their friends.

2. They Make Education More Fun

The students today demand to be engaged. We can’t rely on old-school practices and expect them to sit quietly for hours in the classroom.

Imagine these two scenarios:

• A geography teacher giving a boring lecture, using only a map on the wall. Of course, the student will be bored and ask someone “do homework for me, I remember nothing”.
• A geography teacher using a video game of a character who travels on different destinations and explores them

Who wins the “teacher of the year” award?

3. They Help Students to Learn

When they get into the “real world,” today’s students will definitely use technology. By introducing it in the educational process, we prepare them for a successful future.

Games can help students master skills of reasoning, spatial thinking, problem-solving, and memory. Specific games can teach specific skills.

If you introduce a game that guides them through the writing process, maybe you won’t have students saying “I hired a professional writer and they help me do my essay.” You’ll inspire them to make their own attempts. The game will make the writing process less challenging.

4. Collaboration

Do you have a hard time encouraging your students to collaborate on a project? Letting them play video games in teams will teach them how to collaborate towards a common goal.

Team games put collaboration abilities to the test. Each student must rely on their interpersonal and communication skills in order to make progress.

5. Healthy Competition

Playing competitive games with other individuals or teams helps students develop another important skill: fair competitiveness.

Each game video game comes with specific rules that the players can’t break. Fair play is the only way to win. That’s a valuable lesson to learn throughout the educational process.

Everyone Loves Video Games

When put in educational context, video games can help students develop skills of critical thinking, fair competitiveness, collaboration, writing, and learning through play.

Instead of pushing students to conform to old-school educational standards, we should make the learning process more fun for them. Video games help us with that.

BIO: Jeff Blaylock has a special interest: education. He wants to make it more effective, easier, and more fun for everyone. Learning shouldn’t be a burden; it should bring joy to the student!