Educational game

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under educational games refers to games that also next to a playful act and thus implied learning the player targeted knowledge on certain subjects or certain skills and cultural skills to convey. In game science, they are also referred to as didactic games .

Robot - magnetic educational game (1960)
The telegraph , a children's game for optical telegraphy , 1st half of the 19th century

Traditional and digital educational games

Game educators agree that all games can have a (desirable or undesirable) learning and practice effect for the player. In this respect, educational games are difficult to distinguish from the general term game in terms of definition. Unintentional learning processes also occur during play, which are also referred to as incidental learning . It is therefore obvious to use games to convey certain learning processes. Methodologically, this can be done, for example, in the form of new acquisition, improvement or practice and consolidation of school-related knowledge and skills. From a historical perspective, the games by Friedrich Froebel and their further developments for preschool and elementary school should be mentioned here. For example, they should familiarize themselves with the area of learning to read or arithmetic techniques in the form of board games .

With the spread of PC and game consoles and the increasing importance of computer games (video and PC games, handheld and mobile phone games, etc.) since the 1980s, the game industry and school book publishers increasingly began to bring software-based or digital educational games onto the market bring like Lexidata . These educational games are aimed at children as well as young people and adults and try more or less successfully to use the didactic and especially the motivational design of entertainment-related digital games to stimulate educational processes. For example, some of these educational games contain a reward system that encourages repetition of the subject matter by making it possible to set records . Telling (interactive) stories in which learning activities are given a special meaning should also be motivating . Digital educational games are currently mostly single-player games, but online games over the Internet together with others will also gain in importance in the future.

The flap board , a simple dice game for use in elementary arithmetic lessons.

commitment

Educational games are often used in the home, kindergarten and school for lessons because the joy of playing brings a natural motivation. This often requires little preparation and resources, such as the well-known letter game Hangman , which is used in both classic reading lessons and foreign language lessons . The game Sink Ships can be used in math lessons to consolidate the coordinate system. The game of throwing sticks goes back to the Apache Indians. It enables a differentiated development of counting skills, especially structured counting. In addition, the game serves as a model for displaying percentages as well as common and decimal fractions. The way to school game is used to discover and practice the safe way to school as part of traffic education . Stadt, Land, Fluss is a simple, classic learning game that, like Boggle , can be used in various areas of non-fiction and German lessons, depending on the criteria. Even kindergarten children can become familiar with the scientific relationships between light and shadow by playing the forest shadow game. More difficult, complex and therefore particularly demanding educational processes about games require basic knowledge of game didactics and game methodology , such as that which teachers acquire during their training. With a self-assessment sheet , Warwitz / Rudolf provide the ambitious game master with criteria to test his / her suitability as a game master and his behavior type in a personality analysis.

The German Learning Game Prize has been awarded for commercial educational games from the German-speaking area since 2003 .

See also

literature

  • W. Bergmann: Computers make children smart. What children see and feel, think and learn while playing computer games. Munich 2000.
  • M. Bopp: Didactic Analysis of Digital Games and Game-Based Learning. In: Maja Pivec (Ed.): Affective and Emotional Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction. Game-Based and Innovative Learning Approaches . IOS Press, Amsterdam 2006.
  • M. Bopp: Storytelling as a Motivational Tool in Digital Learning Games. In: T. Hug (Ed.): Didactics of Microlearning. Waxmann, Münster 2007, pp. 261-279.
  • A. Flitner: Play - Learn. Practice and interpretation of the children's game. 12th edition. Munich 2002.
  • A. Rudolf, SA Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help. Freiburg 1982.
  • SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: On the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .

Web links

Commons : Educational games  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Educational game  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. ^ SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: Learning by playing - learning games. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, p. 82.
  2. ↑ A. Rudolf, SA Warwitz: What playing can achieve. In: A. Rudolf, SA Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help. Freiburg 1982, pp. 40-45.
  3. ^ A. Flitner: Play - Learn. Practice and interpretation of the children's game. 12th edition. Munich 2002.
  4. ↑ a b M. Bopp: Didactic Analysis of Digital Games and Game-Based Learning. In: Maja Pivec (Ed.): Affective and Emotional Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction. Game-Based and Innovative Learning Approaches . IOS Press, Amsterdam 2006.
  5. ^ W. Bergmann: Computers make children smart . Munich 2000.
  6. ^ SA Warwitz, A. Rudolf: rules of the game for game masters. In: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas. 4th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 262–270.