Gaming

Minecraft (Source: Egnez, goo.gl/Xp4wZh, under CC0 Public Domain licence)

The nature of gaming

Educational gaming usually involves students taking part in complex multiplayer games, which have much in common with web 2.0 in their facilitation of interaction, collaboration and co-construction of learning, but with an added degree of immersion. Gaming typically takes place in simulated 3-dimensional gaming environments akin to virtual worlds, with the distinction being that the former entail the pursuit of in-game goals, whereas the latter do not. Such gaming environments may have been created specifically for educational purposes, though more commonly students are asked to interact on existing commercial game platforms. Students may access such games on fixed or mobile devices.

The immersiveness of games – which can be enhanced by virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) interfaces, ideally experienced through wearable headsets – potentially links them with the web 3.0 concept of the geospatial web. Games are also linked to mobile learning in various ways, as seen in smartphone-enabled AR games that blend the virtual and the real, or the abovementioned headset-enabled extended reality (XR) experiences.

Learning with games

In general, educational gaming involves what Marc Prensky has called complex games (as opposed to mini-games), or what the Horizon Report has called collaborative digital games (as opposed to non-digital games and non-collaborative digital games). Such games are sometimes referred to as MMOs or MMOGs, that is, Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Gaming is thus distinct from gamification, which involves layering game-like elements over existing learning activities, most commonly web 1.0-style behaviourist activities. That said, it must be acknowledged that there is something of a sliding scale from simpler gamified apps through simulation-based educational games to true commercial MMOs.

Some useful simulation-based games for maths and science can be found at Contraption Maker, Kerbal Space Program, Learn.Genetics, Portal 2, and Universe Sandbox (all now paid apart from Learn.Genetics); some of these allow students to create puzzles for each other. Other games include Epistory (typing words), Tyto Online (science), and the very popular Inanimate Alice (all paid).

For serious games aiming to create social change, check out the list at Games for Change. Citizen science games are becoming more common, with examples including Foldit, Galaxy Zoo, and Genigma.

Contemporary commercial MMOs like World of Warcraft or Heroes of the Storm are seen by some educators as having potential for promoting task-based learning, collaborative problem-solving, negotiation of meaning, and multimodal communication. Minecraft, a virtual environment where everything is made from cubes (see the image at the top of the page), is often used with younger learners; there is a Minecraft Education edition and its educational potential has been documented for example in:

• • Is Minecraft the Future of Education? (Alice Bonasio/CIO, 2019)
  • How Can Minecraft Be Used as an Educational Tool? (Engineering for Kids, 2021)
  • How to Use Minecraft Education in Your Classroom (Laura Ascione/eSchool News, 2023)
  • How to Use Minecraft to Supplement Classroom Learning (Brewminate, 2023)

Older students  might use platforms like World of Warcraft, whose educational potential has been documented for example in:

• • A Teacher’s Perspective on World of Warcraft in School (Stephanie Carmichael/Classcraft, 2017)
  • World of Warcraft in the Classroom (Caleb Gillis/GamingEdus, 2017)
  • MMORPG and Teaching: A New Trend in Pedagogy (Daniel Reed/Study Breaks, 2021)
  • Ten Games Kids Should Play to Enhance their Learning Right Away (eGaming, 2023) [WoW is covered alongside 9 other games]

The principles of learning discussed in these articles apply to many other similar games, and a Google search will often turn up a number of articles about the educational applications of any given game. For a more direct educational approach to complex gaming, see PaGamO, which bills itself as the world’s very first online gaming platform dedicated to education. Educators might also like to explore the communicative possibilities offered by machinima movies, which can easily be produced by students in gaming environments or virtual worlds.

It has been realised in recent years that there is considerable scope for developing students’ computational thinking and coding skills, and indeed their wider digital literacies, as they become involved in designing, building and disseminating their own games. Simple games can be created by teachers or students using branching software such as Yo Scenario (or, for a more manual version, with PowerPoint slides which are interconnected by hyperlinks). Games can be created for free with GameMaker, while Roblox has become popular as a platform for both playing and creating games, as well as participating in other kinds of online events. Buildbox, Chaotix and Idea-to-Game are AI-powered game creation platforms. For a list of some appropriate game design platforms for students, see Common Sense Education’s Best Tools to Make Games (which also covers both GameMaker and Roblox). Note that AI-enhanced game creation platforms – which do not necessarily require coding – are beginning to appear, with one example being Extra Great (formerly the video animation service Dfilm/Dvolver).

There is also growing educational interest in pervasive games, which are played on mobile devices and make use of AR interfaces, leveraging the real world as a gaming environment. There is great potential here for situated, immersive, embodied learning. The best-known of today’s pervasive games include Ingress Prime and Pokémon GO, both by Niantic, a spin-off from Google. A quick Google search will turn up an ever-expanding list of reports by educators on how to use Pokémon GO for teaching and learning.

Last update: May 2024.