Educational games are designed and created to teach or enhance skills on subjects, concepts and reinforce knowledge. Basically, they add excitement and entertainment to learning. Often, students forget that are actually involved in a learning process because of the intense excitement some educational games offer.
I have used educational games with my students with great success. Some educational game software that I am familiar with are: Searchasaurus (the districts PreK-12 Online database for all subject areas), Oregon Trail, Reader Rabbit and The Magic School Bus.
Most educational games are designed to prompt students to recall specific learning objectives. Students can definitely benefit from educational games, because the trend in our society leans heavily toward technology; not only in our schools but in the workplace and at home.
In the past, video games have been viewed as mindless ways to waste time similiar to the number of hours that children watch television is perceived. The key to the amount of value educational games have is based on the content of the information. The million dollar question is, what is the educational value of the resource? Game developers have the tough job of balancing the entertainment component with the educational component. I believe video games do have the potential to aid in the development of the learning environment by allowing students to interact and manipulate objects and variables.
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