Comments on: Do Educational Video Games Actually Work?

By: Falos_Zamsash

Falos_Zamsash — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 03:48:12 +0000

Though I did play a couple of educational games as a child (Math Blaster and Spelling Jungle) I don’t really feel like they really taught me much but I basically learned how to read through just regular games because I would always ask my parents to read what was on the screen but eventually they refused so then I had to figure it out myself. xP And I also think that a lot of my vocabulary comes from games since at least two English teachers have asked my class a word expecting none of us to know but I did, I learned both from RPG’s

By: David

David — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:08:07 +0000

Frankly, stuff like math blaster or carmen sandiego should be set up to be used as an actual school curriculum. I couldn’t tell you anything I learned in World History class from high school, and yet I can still remember stuff I picked up from my where in time is carmen sandiego game from 15 years ago. (Just recently turned 24). Had an old game called Alien Tales (also known as Reading Galaxy these days.), and could do spelling/reading better then most of my class. Had Math Blaster games, and Math used to be my favorite subject.

Interesting coincidence, educational games like that tend to stop around 6th grade. And for some strange reason, I suddenly have harder times in the classes I used to be awesome at. Course to be fair, I also moved to another school district that same year, and that couldn’t have helped either.

Yes, games like that help. No question in my mind, as long as the kid is wililng to play them, as opposed to just shoving it at them which I’d imagine would have the opposite effect.

By: Matt Edens

Matt Edens — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 14:06:43 +0000

I have to say I think educational games are a definite benefit but maybe more geared towards home use then in school. I had one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTech_Socrates at home and I know it helped me get to the level of understanding of mathematics that I have today. If/When I ever have kids I will have some sort of edutainment for them to use. I will also have the just plain fun games but it will be regulated and watched.

By: PrinceJonathan

PrinceJonathan — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:21:04 +0000

Never really played any “educational” games growing up. I can remember when I was real young, like 6 or 7yrs old, going to K-mart and Wal-mart (this was back when Wal-marts were tiny compared to the eldritch abominations they are today, I remember the food court chili dogs were awesome, fuck Mcdonalds). I’d want to play the SNES Demo in the electronics department. A Mortal Kombat demo was the first game I played and MK does not make a great first impression. My parents labelled videogames “Satanic” and refused to let me play any for about another 5 years when they forgot MK existed and bought me an SNES and some games from a pawnshop. Their excuse was “it improves hand-eye coordination”, which even I knew was a load of shit. Even today I still can’t catch a fly with my bare fingers. Although I did rather badassly backhand a bottle my mother threw at my head several weeks ago without flinching, my wrist hurt like hell afterwards, but even she admitted that was cool.

Funny thing looking back…my mothers a Mortal Kombat fan now (mostly of the movies) XD!

By: Lars-Erik Utberg

Lars-Erik Utberg — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:18:38 +0000

What I really want from this info-graphic is more specific sources and also some articles. Maybe from some pedagogy periodicals.