How Videogames can be Better Incorporated into Education
This is a proposal for a change in the American Education System. It is not a criticism of the education system, but a way it could be made stronger. The 21st Century has incredible technology that could make great strides in education. I am speaking specifically about videogames. Videogames unfortunately do not receive nearly the amount of respect they deserve. This is mainly due to companies like EA destroying the reputation of videogames and evangelical groups and others conducting studies that say that videogames cause minors harm. If the public was to look past this, then videogames could be used to make great strides in education. In order to understand how to better incorporate
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In schools, educational video games are forced upon students. Studies have proven, however, that forcing games on students destroys the fun in playing them. An argument against is that there is no other way to make students play the videogames. Technically, that argument is correct, but students should still want to play them anyway. This task can be achieved with an Alternate Reality Game. An Alternate Reality Game, or ARG, is an interactive game that uses the real world as its platform. For example, in an ARG, a player might discover that the third letter of every word on a specific shirt spells out a URL. That player would then have to look up that URL, which would then give the player another clue into finishing the game. This should be created as an edutainment game. For example, a game might tell a student to go on a website, which would then give them a clue to continue the game. The puzzles within the game would test the knowledge of the student from class and homework. This may sound like a boring reskinning of a lesson plan, but it is not. It will work, for it triggers curiosity.
Another promising method of teaching with videogames could be Tangential Learning. Tangential learning is the learning through exposure instead of just a lesson plan. This is when a person would take interest in a character in a movie and would look up that person in order to enlighten themselves with knowledge of their lives. For example, the Final Fantasy VI game caused a great rise in people who knew what a Sephirot was, because the main villain was named that. This style of learning does not replace textbook learning, but it can provide an interesting flavor in a bland