EduGames - What Are They?
A brief overview including (1) an introductory definition of two critical terms and (2) how those apply to Educational Games.
If I were to ask you to think of an "Educational Game," what picture might come to your mind?
Maybe you think of this:
A video game that teaches kids about the alphabet, colors, animals, or other elementary concepts.
Perhaps you thought of the famous Oregon Trail, which taught students a powerful lesson about a period in American history by making them experience the frustration of such a grueling journey.
Or maybe you thought of the award-winning series Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which taught kids about geography, world cultures, and more by having them fly around the world in a hunt for this mysterious figure.
Regardless of your mental image, it is likely that you were thinking of a game that completes the following checklist:
Fully-functioning game with rules, rewards, and a way to win and lose
Content which exposes the player to material they should learn
In the words of a game designer, the first of these items is called the mechanics of a game. It includes things like player controls, the point system, level progression, and rewards and penalties for performing in certain ways.
The second of these items is called the skin of a game. It includes things like the setting, characters, color palette, music, and aesthetic design of the world in which the players act and interact.
Let's investigate this further by taking a very simple game, keeping its mechanics, and changing its skin several times to see what happens. We'll use this game for reference:
Recognize it? Monopoly is a game with a relatively simple premise: claim properties and earn all of the money in the game. The mechanics are also fairly simple, even if they are open to many possibilities:
Roll the dice
Purchase property
Invest in property
Charge Others
Trade With Others
However, those same mechanics can be applied, even if the skin changes. Let's see what that looks like:
Do you love New York City? Explore your favorite streets in the Big Apple with this version of Monopoly!
Maybe you like professional wrestling instead? Smack down with the WWE version of Monopoly in this special edition!
What about Pokemon? Everyone loves Pokemon! You gotta catch 'em all with this special version of Monopoly!
Or, play on your computer with your 3D-animated version of Monopoly for PC!
By now you are probably thinking of other games that have been re-mixed and re-skinned into newer versions of the same old mechanics. This has happened to many games, but the reason this is important to understand is because Edu-Games can fall into four main categories:
Games of Data ("Pattern Puzzles")
Games of Concept ("Applications")
Games of Skill ("Simulations")
Using Game Design Within Education ("Gamification")
To begin, we must look at the first category - this is what most people think of when they consider the term "educational games." In reality, the powers of fun and gaming can be applied other ways.
We will be digging into Bloom's Taxonomy to set up the foundation for the actionable ways the educational games can improve modern education.
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