Games, Games, Games...

I am sure many are familiar with the buzz surrounding educational games. The general thinking is that kids are so used to gaming and human brains are adapted to respond to the reinforcements used in games in a positive manner, that educators should begin adopting games to take advantage of those aspects of games.

The difficulty arrises when we consider the breadth of gaming environments and the breadth of cognitive skills we can practice and in gaming environments. "Games" include everything from arcade style puzzles (think Pac-man) to games that require complex strategies and analysis to solve. Games can also be used to teach simple recall to analysis and synthesis-- the entire range of Bloom's taxonomy.

The teacher who allows students to play arcade-style games as a reward, the teacher who has students record a diary of their Oregon Trail mission (anyone remember that one?), and the teacher who uses FoldIt to introduce the organization of proteins can all claim they are "using games," but the thinking required, the products that result, and the nature of the experience will be much different for students in the different classes.

Given all of this, I am always on the look out for games that are educational in the sense that they:

• Introduce students to accurate and relevant information.
• Require more than simple recall of "facts" to understand, play, and win the game.
• Are not arcade-style games and do not make excessive use of eye and ear candy to motivate students.

One source for such games is the education section of the Nobel Prize web site.