Can we use online games in our classroom?

Last week, I introduce a commercial game for educational purpose, or I can call it "education game". Nowadays, more and more educator, researcher and game developer begin to design and develop education games, or instructional games. But there exists a ton of commercial games and million people play it everyday.A 2008 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 97% of teens aged 12-17 play digital games, and 50% of them report daily or nearly daily play (Lenhart et al., 2008). When gamers play games, they will learn something, at least, they learned how to play this game.

Please try the game below.

Online Physics Games

It just like the games you played on the webpage, on your smart phone or your tablet yesterday! Nothing special. Now, think about what are you doing during playing -- try hard to keep these objects' balance. You may use your intuition and your real life experience to guid you how could you put these objects and protect them from falling down. 

When we talk about keeping balance, we will always refer to the physics concept -- the center of gravity. 

Can we let students play this game whey they learn the concept "balance" and "the center of gravity" in their physics class? If I am the teacher, how can I design one or more classes with this game to facilitate my students learning these basic concepts?

First question, do my students need these game? Or they wil learn well in the traditional way (lecture, hands on activity, Q&A etc.).

I am not sure, some students may understand balance and the center of gravity easily, as they can connect these concepts with their daily experience. For other students who can't find these connections it may be a little bit harder, they might feel these concepts are abstract. 

 

Can I use some material objects to design some experiments to help my students understanding these concepts?

Certainly yes. But experiences are not always success. Students may need to try a lot of times, nonetheless the time of one class is limited. So I need to carefully design my experiment which should not be too hard and also need to align with my teaching content.

Can I use some digital simulation software? 

Compare to material objects experiment, it will save time as we don't need to prepare   anything for it. And students just need click or drag the object.

If we have good simulation, do we need game?   

Well, in my opinion, may be games could engage student more than simulations. As in the game you just played, it have different difficulty levels, from the easiest to the hardest. When you play the game, you are a problem solver just as you use material objects to complete the experiment. But for simulation, if we design some task, not just present, it may reach the same end with experiment or games. 

What's your opinion? Next week, I want to introduce some researches about using games in classroom, to see these researchers thoughts.



Reference

Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008) Teens, Video Games and Civics. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Washington D.C.