Home > Teachers Group > Discussion Board

What are the advantages of using interactive games as a learning tool?

Interactive games allow learning to be fun. The goal is to get kids to learn and in this day and age; it's getting harder all the time. Kids are so plugged in that allowing them to learn through a media they easily comprehend can only allow the to learn thier objectives more easily. Additionally, if you look a different learning styles; this lets visual learners access their inforation in a fun format. assignment+computer=more product with less work. It's a win, win!

Students are learning technology at an amazingly fast rate. They are constantly texting, surfing the internet, playing video games, and talking on the phone. When they get to school, after all of this activity, they want more interactive lessons.

By understanding students and their needs, we make learning more interesting for them. They are more apt to enjoy learning when it's fun. Luckily our school has Smartboards and they have many interactive activities included. I really don't know what I would do without it!

Any activity that involves recalling information from memory, making mental calculations and analysis, thinking of new ideas and designs, reacting to events quickly and correctly, or exercising the brains in any other way helps to develop general abilities of brain. In addition it aids more specific learning such as better memorisation of information including the volume of information stored as well as speed of its recall, development of creative and innovative abilities, and improvement of faster body responses. Interactive games provide opportunities of exercising brains in these various ways described above.

When the interactive games are interesting and involve  use of information, mental methods, problems, and physical actions related to specific subjects or areas of learning, they enable players to develop proficiency in that area quickly and in enjoyable way. For example a cross word puzzle improves memory and recall of words. It also helps lateral thinking abilities to some extent. In contrast, a game like video racing will be more useful in developing speed of bodily response and mind and body coordination. As a matter flight simulators used for training pilots are like a very sophisticated video game involving flying. In this way another advantage learning by interactive games is avoiding the risks and costs associated with practicing some of the skill in real world.

Usually interactive games are to help learn better. Most kids dont learn straight from the teacher lecturing. WIth interactive games it makes that child more ingaged in the subject because the game is usually fun. Does this help? (summary is short, but easy to understand)

Interactive games appeal to students because these games are visual, auditory, dynamic, and colorful. They increase learning because students will focus their attention and are much less likely to be distracted while playing them. Also, interactive games require active participation rather than passive listening and give students immediate feedback. A good interactive computer game is a very effective teaching tool.

There are several benefits to the use of interactive games in the classroom. 1)They appeal to a wider range of learning styles; 2)Interactive games promote more student engagement. There will still be those who aren't actively participating, but even most of them are paying attention; 3)When rote memorization is necessary, interactive games offer a tool that makes the memorization more effective; 4)Interactive games are more fun, but it really seems as if they're more fun because they promote more student autonomy. (Students control the ebb and flow of information rather than having a teacher do it.) 5)In most schools, technology is readily available so interactive games are easily accessible; 6)Interactive games make a good incentive for promoting student accountability in that they can be a reward when students have fulfilled part of the assignment requirements. The list could go on and on, but like all good things, interactive games must be used prudently.

The previous posts were very lucid.  I especially like the last one, in terms of their prudent use.  I have always felt that any game used in the classroom must have clear and definite tie ins to the curriculum. Teachers must be able to monitor and help students process why what they are doing has content tie in.  If it turns out that this is not the case, there is a tendency to become academically wayward.  In this instance, games become a learning tool, but only if there is a prudent and deliberate approach to their integration into the learning process.

Akannan raises a good point about the teacher's responsibility to inform and monitor students. I tease my kids that we're not allowed to play "games"; they're "learning activities". This is an essential factor in the use of interactive games. The students must know the academic relevance of the activity in order for them to get the full academic benefit of the activity. The teacher should still teach during the use of these activities. For example, I have a Smart Board, and my high school classes love to play the spelling game Bookworm. We do this as a class, and when we play, I make sure we pause to discuss definitions of words that students spell, whether there are affixes available to add to the word, whether there are letters that can be combined like gh, th, sh, etc. The major part of the learning does not come through the actual game, but through the teachable moments that go along with the game.