I believe that there are a few criteria that can make anything educational. It something is fun, engaging, productive, teaches unknown knowledge, provides growth mentally, improves coordination, improves social interaction, creates real world simulation among a myriad of like-intentioned things then I believe it is beneficial. Now what is interesting is that video games can provide a template for all of these things and more. Video games that are appropriate can be so beneficial for the education of students.
I read an article online that said games like Sim City, Zoo Tycoon and other simulation games teach kids about real life situations. It teaches them about money, about managing resources, about cities and how they work, about animals, interactions between many different complicated ideas and an endless other things. It provides an engaging environment that students and children have to learn about and process to be successful in the game and, by extension, the real world. Games like Age of Empires teaches about history and shows how people use to live through many stages of history, some games are historically accurate. Video games are adapted from the world around us and lend insight to many facets of information; I can’t see why that shouldn’t be encouraged.
Not all games are good though, but still are not bad. Shoot-em-up games are not always the best thing to do but even that improves hand eye coordination. There are games that do that that are not violent. There has to be, like anything, moderation, games can be time consuming and distract from more tangible assessments like writing papers and doing homework. We shouldn’t ever write them off as useless but learn how to incorporate them into a modern curriculum.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/1879019.stm
