Project Report: How Educational Games are Changing the Classroom

This project report investigates the evolving role of educational games in modern classrooms, particularly within higher education. It begins with an introduction highlighting the shift from traditional teaching methods to interactive, game-based learning, emphasizing the psychological benefits for students. The literature review explores the changing learning styles of the new generation, focusing on the impact of technology and the integration of games. The report analyzes various approaches to incorporating educational games, including educator-designed games, student-designed games, and commercial off-the-shelf games, and emphasizes the importance of teacher and administration buy-in. The report then discusses the benefits of educational games, such as enhancing engagement and making learning more accessible, particularly for subjects like mathematics and language. The research and analysis section examines the impact of changing writing practices and the influence of technology on student learning, highlighting the need for educators to adapt their teaching methods. It also discusses the role of design-based research and the involvement of organizations in evaluating the benefits of game-based learning. The report concludes by presenting the findings of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of game-based learning, including increased learning achievement and the positive impact of simulations. It also highlights the widespread adoption of games in classrooms and the positive impact of technology to enhance learning. The report provides a comprehensive overview of how educational games are changing the classroom environment.

HOW GAMES ARE CHANGING CLASSROOM 1
A PROJECT REPORT
ON
HOW GAMES ARE CHANGING CLASSROOM

How Games Are Changing Classroom 2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
EDUCATIONAL GAMES..............................................................................................................4
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

How Games Are Changing Classroom 3
INTRODUCTION
Classroom games have become a very common phenomenon for the teachers and students. The
students no longer prefer to study through the traditional methods of teaching such as boards,
presentations, visuals and lectures. Instead, they prefer to have interactive methods for study and
that brings the need of educational games. Educational games help students to understand their
subjects in a better manner as they are designed by considering the psychological needs of the
students. These games are also important in keeping the attention of the students in the games.
The students can understand the games a better and an interactive manner.
The students can easily learn their core subjects through these games. The games reinforce the
core concepts of the subjects in an interesting way that attracts the attention of the students. The
games could include use of videos, board, card and characters that attract children. Games have
proved to be very effective tool of learning not only for the children of lower grades but also for
higher grades students. In the lower grades, the students are not familiar with the importance of
studies and find it boring. With the help of games, the teacher can grab the attention span of the
students and enforce learning on the students.
With the advent of technology and other advances in the society, children are always distracted
by video games, movies, mobiles and gaming devices. It has become very difficult for the
teachers to make them sit and teach important subjects in a classroom. Educational games have
been introduced in order to garner the attention of the students from video games and movies to
serious games that would have great impact on the future of the children. With this useful
concept, the students can be easily taught about an historical event or culture which is more
likely to help them in developing their brain power. The students can easily learn and acquire
new skills while playing games and activities. These games engage the students in their studies
through interactive sessions wherein they learn goal setting, problem solving, rules, adaptation
and stories. These games are also beneficial for the students in higher grades as they can learn
the subject in a more familiar manner. The involvement of games eliminate the need of other
unnecessary distractions that messes up the brain of children by offering a unique combination of
enjoyment, creativity, passion, motivation, emotion and interaction. The games are an apt choice
to enhance the learning of the students.

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The report would thus, make an attempt to understand the impact the serious games on students
and how it increases their focus towards studies by diverting their attention from video games.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Tüzün, the new generation is very different from the old generation in terms of
thinking, learning and acquiring new skills. The author claimed that the present generation is
very attached to the internet, mobile and other electronic gadgets (Tüzün, 2007). In other words,
today’s youth always want to stay connected with the technology and it has become an essential
part of their life. For them, multitasking has become a very common phenomenon. Thus, the
author analyzed the changing behavioral patterns of the new generation and concluded that one
must not be amazed to know that today’s children do acknowledge the traditional ways of
teaching and are repulsed by it (Tüzün, 2007).
The authors Apperley & Beavis also advocated that today’s children grow up playing video
games and therefore, integration of games in classroom has become an essential part of teaching
(Apperley & Beavis, 2011). So far, there have been three approaches that have been used for the
integration of educational games into classrooms: the educators designing and developing
educational games, the students designing games and COTS games (commercial off the-shelf
games) being integrated in the classrooms. The authors also argued that integration of games and
activities within classroom is largely influenced by the administration and teachers of school,
college and other institution. Thus, in order to introduce games in the classrooms, they must be
convinced about how the integration of games would help in the overall development of
children.
Another author Groves argued that in order to truly understand the impact of educational games
on children, the schools must adopt more naturalistic design methodologies and observe the issue
from global perspective (Groves, 2012). This would help the educators and psychologists
understand the role of this medium in affecting the classrooms.
The report would try to introspect the different perspectives of different scholars by critically
examining their research on this topic. The view of different scholars would then be taken to
analyze and comprehend the role of educational games in classrooms.

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EDUCATIONAL GAMES
Educational games help to build the foundation for children. The children are able to acquire
necessary skills in an interesting manner. The games help the students to learn important subjects
such as Mathematics and Language through fun activities. These subjects are considered as
boring by the students; however, the interest of the students can be enhanced with the help of
educational games. The educational games should have the right dose of fun as well as education
so that the students can learn new skills and technology in an effective manner. In order to
develop an educational game, the development team must be involved with the psychologists,
educators and child experts to create games that not only interest the students but are also
beneficiary for them in their overall development (Dwyer, 2011). The games have been proved
to be very important element for young children as they instill a sense of confidence within them.
The games further motivate them to continue to learn and acquire new skills for success in their
school life. With the development of technology and research on child development, a number of
games have been prepared for the children of different ages in order to help them learn and
acquire the fundamentals of subjects. A number of educational games have been introduced on
Mathematics, Social Science, English Literature, History, Geography, Arts, Science and English.
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
The study has revealed that the changing writing practices over the past 20 years have affected
the learning style of students (Groves, 2012). This is largely due to changing technology and
trends in the society. Currently, the youth is attached to their technological devices as well as
they use the same devices to store or write something. The children have reduced writing which
has impacted on their cognitive abilities.
The technological writing has challenged the traditional methods of writing which now requires
creativity, multimodality, technological and technical complexity. The students have become
technologically more advanced by learning new literacy, new technological competencies and
new social skills. The students are no longer interested in traditional style of learning because
they have become adapt to the technological competencies and accept same from their teachers
and parents (O'Mara & Laidlaw, 2011). The students have grew up in a different environment
and culture as compared to their parents and teachers and are thus, driven by the culture of

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interconnected utility of technology, social interaction, creativity, and connection with
community. On the other side, the teachers are still in the process of understanding this shift in
learning and literacy practices (Peirce, Conlan & Wade, 2008). They need to revive the culture of
learning environment by addressing the issue of how a classroom session must be planned. For
the last 20 years, there have been consistent attempt to revive the literacy practices in classrooms
(Squire, 2011). Although the extent of teachers accustoming themselves with the changing style
of teaching is another issue.
A systemic classroom is composed of faculties, curriculum and assessment and; thus, classroom
life is synergistic (Tüzün, 2007). Therefore, when someone addresses the single aspect then one
must consider all the three as they are interdependent on each other. Thus, it becomes difficult to
study just one aspect as changing any one of the three is most likely to influence the others. The
scholars have developed a design based research methodology in order to develop creative and
innovative ways to teach students (Gunter, Kenny & Vick, 2008). The study also seeks to
examine the effect of those methods on the students’ learning in order to deduce conclusive
results. Many of the scholars have stated that a number of design-based research projects do not
take into account the issues of sustainability, scalability and usability which has limited the scope
of study and restricted the evolving learning styles. In order to address the challenges and evolve
new effective learning styles for students, these projects must consider the issues of
sustainability, scalability and usability (Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011).). This would help them to
create a sustainable model of teaching with effective learning styles for the students.
With the passage of time, there has been an increase in the number of research organizations,
corporations and foundations who are taking a keen interest in the development of students. The
organizations have become more involved in evaluating the advantages of game based classroom
learning. Some of the esteemed organizations that have taken keen interest in the subject are the
MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Educational Testing
Services, the Entertainment Software Association and Pearson Inc.
Another organization that has taken some initiative in the subject is GlassLab (the Games and
Learnin Assessment Lab), a subsidiary of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MacArthur
Foundation. The organization has developed game based formative assessments that have taken

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into account the psychological needs of the students. The organization has successfully designed
and implemented these assessments. The team of GlassLab has very strategically developed
these assessments by considering the needs of students as well as teachers. The students like to
play video games and thus, Evidence Centered Design (ECD) has been very well applied using
this concept. The focus is to develop innovative and interactive games which can pique the
interest of the students towards their studies.
Several researches made by the team have demonstrated success till now. In a study conducted in
2013, it was revealed that when traditional teaching style was compared to digital games then the
audience appeared more sensitive towards digital games teaching style (Steinkuehler, 2007).
Further study us conducted by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which revealed that the
students who were given an environment of contemporary teaching style, showed an increased
learning achievement of 12% as compared to other students who did not have any gaming
activities in their classrooms. Another study that involved simulations increased the learning
style of students was increased by 25% that is a significant increase.
The game based learning has become an effective tool to teach students because of the integrated
technology that is able to offer a real time experience to the students. The students are thus, able
to experience real life situations in terms of physical, emotional and intellectual terms (Stroud,
2017). Further, their safety and security is also ensured here because there is no real time
competition involved so the students are free to utilize their potential. The approach has proved
to be an efficient one because of the enhanced learning and understanding of students.
This enhanced learning by 12% and 25% may be surprising in the given context but another
study revealed that the teachers already knew about the impact of game based learning on the
students’ learning. The survey revealed that 55% teachers were already conducting weekly
games and 78% teachers were effectively using games in their classrooms. Further, the teachers
who were surveyed were not fresh, rather they had an average experience of 14.5 years of
classroom teaching (Shapiro, 2014). The survey also revealed that around 30% of the teachers
believed that games are equally important in the curriculum of school (Shapiro, 2014). Another
important finding of the study was that teachers believed that games are even better for the
students who are not able to perform in the school or are facing emotional, behavioral, and

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cognitive or development challenges. To simplify it further, the students who were below the
average and could not cope up with the traditional teaching and learning styles are most likely to
benefit from game based learning. The study concluded that around 65% of the teachers have
observed that below average students become more engaged with the subject when given an
environment of game based learning (Shapiro, 2014).
CONCLUSION
The report has successfully evaluated the impact of game based learning in classrooms by
critically examining the work of different scholars. The scholars have pointed out that in the last
twenty years, there has been a drastic change in the learning style of the students. The change is
due to the evolving technologies and the growing environment of students. The student grow up
in an environment which is interconnected using the technology and is socially more interactive.
Thus, the students are always distracted by the video games, movies and mobiles in their
classrooms. Their first priority is watching latest movie or buying latest electronic gadget over
their studies. Thus, it became challenging for the teachers to teach these students using the
traditional teaching style of lectures or presentations. The report also discussed the impact of
various studies on the learning ability of students. The learning was enhanced by 12% among the
students who were taught using games and the study also revealed that most of the teachers were
already using games in their curriculum for the development of the students.

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REFERENCES
Apperley, T., & Beavis, C. (2011). Literacy into action: Digital games as action and text in the
English and literacy classroom. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 6(2), 130-143.
Dwyer, L. (2011). How Gaming Is Changing the Classroom. Retrieved from:
https://www.good.is/articles/how-gaming-is-changing-the-classroom
Groves, C.E. (2012). Interactive creative technologies: Changing learning practices and
pedagogies in the writing classroom. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy,
The, 35(1), 99.
Gunter, G. A., Kenny, R. F., & Vick, E. H. (2008). Taking educational games seriously: using
the RETAIN model to design endogenous fantasy into standalone educational
games. Educational Technology Research and Development, 56(5-6), 511-537.
Habgood, M. J., & Ainsworth, S. E. (2011). Motivating children to learn effectively: Exploring
the value of intrinsic integration in educational games. The Journal of the Learning
Sciences, 20(2), 169-206.
O'Mara, J., & Laidlaw, L. (2011). Living in the iworld: Two literacy researchers reflect on the
changing texts and literacy practices of childhood. English Teaching, 10(4), 149.
Peirce, N., Conlan, O., & Wade, V. (2008, November). Adaptive educational games: Providing
non-invasive personalised learning experiences. In Digital Games and Intelligent Toys
Based Education, 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on (pp. 28-35). IEEE.
Shapiro, J. (2014). Games In The Classroom: What the Research Says. Retrieved from:
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/27/games-in-the-classroom-what-the-research-says/
Squire, K. (2011). Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the
Digital Age. Technology, Education--Connections (the TEC Series). Teachers College
Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027.

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Steinkuehler, C. (2007). Massively multiplayer online gaming as a constellation of literacy
practices. E-learning and Digital Media, 4(3), 297-318.
Stroud, J.D. (2017).The Change Game: Engaging Exercises to Teach Change. Retrieved from:
https://www.isixsigma.com/training/training-materials-aids/change-game-engaging-exercises-
teach-change/
Tüzün, H. (2007). Blending video games with learning: Issues and challenges with classroom
implementations in the Turkish context. British Journal of Educational
Technology, 38(3), 465-477.