Experts say using Serious Games provides opportunities for deeper learning
Via: +Stanford Engineering - Playing To Learn
Late February, panelists at Stanford discussed the value of using Educational Serious Games, stating that “Interaction and opportunities to make choices are among the virtues of the new generation of educational games.”(Please find also STANFORD Magazine: Serious Games as an Apollo Program for Math Education).
Serious Games are already a significant category in the video game industry and are progressively opening up possibilities for one-to-one instructions and interactions.
The panel discussion, held at the Graduate School of Education (GSE) on February 26, was part of the yearlong public course, Education's Digital Future. Roy Pea, co-convener of the class and a professor in the GSE, introduced the speakers by reminding that "gaming to learn has been around Stanford for almost a decade, but only recently possibilities in the realm of education have truly been appreciated.”
The panelists, among the field's leading figures in academia, design and policy, zeroed in on freedom and choice as crucial factors in explaining why and how children learn.
"Human minds are plug-and-play devices; they're not meant to be used alone. They're meant to be used in networks”, said James Paul Gee (Please see also Disconnects Between Serious Games Wins and Report Cards for Students’ Classroom Skills). "Games allow us to do that – they allow us to use collective intelligence.”
Panelist agreed that games help us develop non-cognitive skills that are as fundamental as cognitive skills in explaining how we learn and if we succeed. Read the full article here