"Our young play video games and are certainly more enthralled and engaged doing so compared to their studies. So, Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) developed a customized game-based program to supplement the teaching of Mathematics, Science and Geography. Together with NIE’s Learning Sciences Lab, they used an international open-source research project—Quest Atlantis, developed by Indiana University. In this project, students and teachers exist as avatars to solve and learn from a variety of missions and quests. These efforts build on a set of 6 games developed by one of the teachers and which won the Lenovo Innovation Award last year. For example, in the game titled “Investment Guru”, students assume the role of a trader in the stock market and build up their investment portfolio. Applying concepts such as profit and loss, percentage, and graphs, students have to analyze data and decide on the choice of investments. Other interesting tasks conceived in the game includes that of a Civil Engineer who needs to position columns and beams, and Football Club managers who need to manage their club. The results have been positive—teachers too find it enjoyable and even have to attend gaming workshops once a term to keep up with their students."
Speech by Dr Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, at MOE ExCEL Fest 2008 at Suntec Convention Centre, on Friday, 4th July 2008, 3.00pm | |
Why use Games in Education? |
•When individuals play modern video and computer games, they experience environments in which they often must master the kinds of higher-order thinking and decision-making skills employers seek today.
•In addition, educational games that incorporate simulations provide a way to bridge the gap between abstract concepts or theoretical knowledge and practical skills, an important way to translate what is learned in training to application
•Digital natives want learning experiences that parallel the exciting and engaging digital formats in which they routinely participate.
•Educational games might improve students attitudes about learning even difficult subjects, including those who are not attracted to studying mathematics and science.
Adapted from the Paper “Summit on Educational Games, Harnessing the Power of Video Games for Learning. Federation of American Scientist” |
