Ramirez-1

Andrew A. Ramirez
Ms. Gongora-3
English 12
October 19, 2015
The Uses of Video Games in Education
When you think about video games what do you think about. Is it just violent nonsense
that is causing every child to be dumb and violent, or is it a fun source of entertainment? Hardly
anyone thinks of it as an educational resource that could help students learn better and really
catch ones attention in class. Video games in the classroom seems like an unthinkable topic for
some people of the world primarily adults, but not all. Video game uses in classes could make us
rethink what we learn and do in our classrooms to help us learn (Griffiths). All though many
may argue that video games should not be in education. The uses of video games in education as
a teaching material for students with the use of existing games to teach about any certain subject,
develop skills like faster reaction time and hand-eye coordination for students, and help set goals
and the ability to try new ideas and methods to solving a problem. Instead of making new video
game educators can use existing games to teach certain subjects in schools for students to learn.
Skills like reaction time and hand-eye coordination can either be developed or approved upon
from playing video games in a continuous manner, allowing students to improve with practice.
By making the classroom fun video games could encourage students to set goals for themselves
while playing and allowing students to think properly in order to problem solve so the student
can pass a certain objective, goal, mission, or even the video game itself. Should video games
really be used in education as a teaching material that is the question but for many students and
avid gamers the answer yes and here is why?

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Video games in an educational level already exist and are being used to teach subjects in
a fun and interactive way. Serious games are an area in immersive educational media. Serious
games are computer games with specific rules, which utilizes entertainment to further
government, corporate training, education, health, public policy, and strategic communication
objectives, the goal(Liarakou). Video games made for educational uses are known as serious
games. Serious games are typically based on the computer games that can be used for
educational purposes in either teaching an employ how to his/her job or teaching students a
lesson such as literature or math. Like all games and even education facility, serious games have
rules that a student must follow and utilize entertainment to further the uses in any school subject
to help further along a students educational purposes.
Video games that were not made for education such as Minecraft have the potential to be
used in education. Minecraft follows the principle of earth ecology to produce and generate an
in game environment. There are environments inside the game that visualize a real life
environment like a forest, jungle, dessert swamp, and snowy terrain even real life animals with
domestication, breeding, as well resources (Ekaputra). Minecraft follows the same environment
as the Earth, allowing teachers to teach how each environment looks in an interactive way to
students. While playing Minecraft students may be able to learn how each of the Earths
environments look and work. Students will also learn biology and production by being able to
learn how to domesticate animals and their purposes to in food, resources, and transportation
even breeding animals.
Video games use to further the development of skills in regular and special need groups
in education. Demarests autistic 7-year old son had serious deficiencies in language and
understanding, and social and emotional difficulties, videogame playing was one activity he was

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able to excel. Video games provided the visual patterns, speed and storyline that help childrens
basic skills development (Griffiths). Video games help special need groups to grow in areas
they were lacking in. Video games provide visual patterns and storytelling like novels that may
have exceled students learning in language skills, reading skills, and problem solving skills.
Video games provided lessons that could be learned by exploring the games story, functions,
objectives, and the purpose of what the game is trying to teach.
Action video game uses in the development of attention skills in students in order to
focus on test and assignments. According to Dye, Green and Bavelier research a total of 131
students participated in their study, 56 students played action video games and 75 played no
video games. All students were asked to take the Attentional Network Test (ANT) in order to
measure their attention skills. Results showed that playing action video games speeded
processing of visual information and improved attention skills of the players (Drigas). Using
action video games helped developed students attention skills, and allowed students to focus on
a certain topic. Other video game genres have the same effect with attention skills and possibly
develop other skills that students can use. Video games grabs, players attention to help develop
the students skill, allowing students to focus on that game long enough for the student to learn a
new skill or further along their own skills.
Video games helped further develop critical thinking and problem solving among
students. Video and computer-based games possess advantages that are not presented in other
learning strategies. The ability to choose different solutions to a difficult problem then see what
happened based on those decisions with fictional games students could experiment with problem
solving in a safe environment(Griffiths). Students are allowed to use different solutions to solve
problems in the game to proceed further along in a game. Video games allow students to retry

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until the student can succeed in completing the assignment that was given without the need of
outside help to complete the game. Allowing students to set goals and sticking to them until the
method finally works which may help with accomplishing new ideas. Doing so may help
develop new ideas and methods for problem solving that may help test new methods or other
forms of problem solving skills.
Simulation games help develop a students set goals and testing new ideas/methods to
help problem solve one such simulator game is EnerCities. The game starts with a small village
and a small piece of land to build on. While gamers need to balance population, environmental,
and economic gains while supplying the growing city with sufficient electricity, implementing
energy conservation and CO2 emission measures and minimizing fossil fuel use, a players
decision influences population, environmental, and economic gains. The game lets players
execute various tactics and see the results of their decisions on the long term (Knol). Players
would have to balance population, environment, and profit while supplying their city with
sufficient energy. Energy such as electricity, conserving CO2 emission, and minimizing fossil
fuel use all that were just listed are objectives in the game that are set goals that the player must
meet to complete the EnerCities. EnerCities allows players to try their own methods to finishing
the goals that EnerCities sets. Students can see what methods work to solve a certain situation or
if the method used will last in the long run or will the method only work in the short term,
allowing students to think before an error is made.
Many teachers and school board directors even parents argue that video games should
not be used in education. However, the players attitudes, based on their experiences as endusers and on the way the games help to constitute their everyday lives, contrast with those of
politicians, education leaders, and many media professionals and critics. Some except video

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games, the majority show deep concern and even reject video games outright, blaming video
games for growing a culture of violence (De Aguilera). Some politicians, education leaders, and
critics do accept video games and the number is rising but the fact still remains that the majority
still believe that video games are harm to todays society. When an incident accurse with video
games, public leaders pass judgment blaming video games as the cause of the problem, but many
public leaders have never even played video games. Public leaders mainly look down on games
with violence, sexist, and addictive characteristics, while ignoring its possible uses to students in
an educational setting.
Video games are a complex tool and are not easily made or succeed well enough often
failing to teach students anything at all or providing any form of entertainment. Designing an
educational game is a complex issue, as it requires the combination of entertainment and
education as well as funding to make an educational video game that will actually succeed. Most
educational video games fail to be amusing and attractive to children ultimately making
educational leaders stay away from using games (Drigas). Making a game is very complex and
hard not to mention time consuming with the video game possibly failing to teach anything and
very costly. Many educational video games fail to be attractive to students and as a result fail to
teach students anything. Teaching students in a traditional setting is far more effective than using
educational video games in the eyes of many adults in education and political fields. However,
video games will continue to teach students even if it is not done in schools or by a teacher.
Using video games in schools to teach students new things and help students develop new
skills to further their education. Making a new video game for the purposes of education is not an
easy thing to do, but there are games that have already been made that are useful in teaching
education. Games like Minecraft that can teach anything from Ecology to circuitry just by using

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what is in the game. EnerCity teaches students about how to conserve energy and reduce CO2
emissions use, with a city building simulator. Games like EnerCity develop multitasking,
management, and adjective tasking skills due to the various quest and requirements the players
have to meet just to complete the game. Each type of game genre offers different type of skill a
student can learn with cooperative games, students learn cooperative skills and communication
skills, with puzzle games players, learn problem solving skills. Using video games to help set
goals and try new ideas to solving a problem. In EnerCity the player has to finish the objectives
which are population, profit, and environmental while trying to supply the city the player is
building with energy and reducing CO2 emissions use. Players are allowed to try new methods
and ideas and see what happens in the long term does it work or does it not work, if it does not
work the player can always restart and do it again until better results show. Video game in
education has the potential for powerful things I believe that it could teach students much faster
than any traditional teaching means. In a social level video games have the potential of growing
students far further than todays traditional teaching due to todays society uses in technology
and entertainment, many children today learn how to use a tablet, phone, and even video games
before they even learn how to read or go to school. Modern video games possess both
technology and entertainment while providing rich detailed stories that students can learn while
playing the game and seeing what is happening first hand instead of actually sitting down and
reading a book and not experiencing what is happening or seeing what the story is all about.
Video games possess advantages not present in other learning strategies. The ability to choose
different solutions to a difficult problem then seeing the effect of that decision whether it is a
fictional video game, students are able to experiment with problem-solving in a relative safe
environment without the fear of failing (Griffiths).

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Works Cited
De Aguilera, Miguel, and Alfonso Mendiz. Video Games and Education (Education in the Face
of a Parallel School). ACM computers in Entertainment. Vol.1, No. 1, October 2003,
Article 01. Print. 30 Aug. 2015.
Drigas, Athanasios S, et al On Line and Other Game-Based Learning for Mathematics. iJOE.
Volume 11. Issue 4, 2015. Print, 27 Aug. 2015.
Ekaputra, Glenn, et al. Minecraft: A Game as an Education and scientific Learning Tool.
ISICO. 2-4 December 2013. Print. 26 Aug. 2015.
Griffiths, Mark. The educational benefits of videogames. Education and Health. Vol.20, No.
3, 2002. Print. 25 Aug .2015.
Knol, Erik, and Peter W. De Vries Enercities: Educational Game About Energy. CESB10
Prague. Print. 31 Aug. 2015.
Liarakou, Georgia, et al. Evaluation of Serious Games, as a Tool for Education for Sustainable
Development. Best of EOEN 2011. Print. 31 Aug. 2015.