More on Educational Games

Tulkamir

Hey, I know that this is a fairly common-ish topic for gamers, but this weekend I got the privilege to go to (and present at) a seminar at Simon Fraser University concerning educational simulations and games. We've all seen the gamers side of the story, so it was fairly interesting for me to see what some universities and researchers are doing with it as well as what the academics point of view on it is. While it was a fairly small seminar (only around 10 people), it was made up primarily of non-gamers.

The first presentation was done by a doctor who is heading a lot of projects in the area. He's making a website with game shells (simple games, boardgame style) where teachers can go and enter in their own questions to make up an educational one. (an idea I found very interesting. I think that it has a lot of potential) He also talked a bunch on and showed some examples of educational games and simulations. (One really interesting one was a training game the US Army and Marines use to teach soldiers about middle eastern culture and customs. Was very interesting, had voice recognition to help the soldiers learn parts of the language and everything).

Anyways, before this post gets too long and boring, I figured I'd get to the point. I found it very interesting how these very academic and non-gamer types were intersted in the use of games/simulations, what they viewed as the problems with it, where they saw the potential, etc...

I also came to the conclusion that there is some interest from a lot of these people who are not gamers in using games to teach. In the end, I think what I really realized though, was that though there is lot of potential in this, the problem seems to lie in the lack of communication between game developers and educators. I think that until educators and us developers get together to work on these together, the great potential in them will be lost.

What do you all think?

(Sorry if the topic seems dull or pointless, I'm just very interested in the subject after this weekend. Now that I've heard the academic point of view and it's fresh in my mind I'd love to hear more of what you think.)

cholden

I made an educational game once. Our educators were great folks, but were mostly stuck in their old methods of educating. Very reflective of a classic game development problem of work-in-progress assets causing upper management to freak out and change everything because it doesn’t immediately weld perfect results. The educators just need to trust the developers, as we trust the education to be accurate facts. I’ve personally wanted to get back into educational games by working on a lot of educating concepts and game designs, but that’s another story.

Ninjas

The problem with non-gamers trying to make educational games is the same problem illiterate people have with writing books-- except worse because non-gamers don't even know that they are ignorant. They really think they know everything there is to know about games because they played Pong.

There are a lot of really awesome educational games out there. Civilization, Sim City, Gran Tourismo, Shen Mu etc. Even games like Counter-Strike are educational on a number of different levels.

But what people really mean by "educational software" are games made by non-gamers that are designed to be tedious. I have never played a good "educational game" and since they suck, people avoid them, and so they teach nothing.

Video games are naturally suited to teach people skills, and so it is only a matter of time before they become the primary way people learn things. I think over the next 10 years we will probably see some really good games that are educational, but not until there are gamers that are in charge of the game design.

LordScottish

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There are a lot of really awesome educational games out there. Civilization, Sim City, Gran Tourismo, Shen Mu etc. Even games like Counter-Strike are educational on a number of different levels.

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I agree with this. On a couple of occasions I learned a lot in a game and then got interested in the topic itsself, so I read it up. While I don't think games are ever going to replace books because the media isn't suited for it, I think games can be a great way to create interest and open a gate to more knowledge.

Em.

I used to work for a company who was going to do training video games, mainly for industrial, aeronautical and emergency services. Besides the fact that the company couldn't get their act together and in the end shut down due to poor management, the biggest problem we faced on the development side of things was lack of communication. We never had any direct communication with the clients, and our execs barely knew what we did and how we did it other than "3D is the wave of the future, it looks so cool!". So, they would go and speak with the clients, and come back with not enough or useless information. I think as more and more people are exposed to gaming on a regular basis, and have a better grasp of how they work, this problem will be resolved. But, like it was said above, there's usually trust issue on the educator side because they don't understand the development process. Also, there were a lot of circumstances in which the client wanted interactive training, but it was not necessary for what they wanted to teach and how they wanted to teach it, they were just after something that made them look "high-tech". It has to make sense for the company to spend the time and the money on interactive training, and it has to be subject matter that would not be conveyed as well through more traditional methods like books and videos.
It would be interesting to work with someone who was an educator, but had a strong interest in gaming and had bothered to do some research on the subject. I think that's the only way that making good educational games would be possible. Sorry for the big rant there...

Campaignjunkie

I think educational games that directly integrate the subject matter into the design are definitely the most compelling - like Oregon Trail, for instance. You get a sense of the ecological impact that hunting had, how dangerous the journey was, and what the heck Independence Rock was.

Unfortunately, most educational games take the lazy route, to become the equivalent of a virtual flash card. "2+2 = ? click the right answer!"

Oh, and I echo the greatness and educational value of Civilization and SimCity. Civilization especially - before learning it in school, that's how I learned about a lot of the ancient rulers, wonders of the world, different types of government... the list goes on.