Games and Education
Games are not always about recreation. Increasingly, they can be used as educational tools for both children and adults, and this is not limited to maths tutors and spelling games. More and more corporations and universities utilise games for employment and higher skills training.
Games with an educational component
Games with an educational component are a significant part of the Australian market with sales averaging 50,000 units per month. In addition to providing entertainment, there are benefits available to children and adults who play computer and video games in a healthy way.
- Young children are introduced to technology.
- Playing games gives practice listening, following direction, solving problems and developing strategies to get around entertaining problems.
- Fine motor skills and spatial skills are enhanced.
- Games are an opportunity for children and parents to play together.
Games as educational tools
Games grounded in reality are increasingly used to enhance skills in various fields of employment, without the cost of live training on expensive machinery.
As an example:
- Pilots use flight simulators for training.
- Racing car drivers use driving simulators for training.
- Universities use “Sim City” for educational purposes as it contains a model economy.
- Town planners use the rendering technologies used in games to model the affect of changes to urban environments.
- Internet advertising uses mini games to sell new products.
- Firms including IBM and Nokia use quiz games to test workers knowledge
- The US Army uses a game as a recruitment tool.
- Pfizer uses a simulation tool to model its drug development process.
- Pricewaterhouse Coopers use an elaborate simulation to train auditors.