Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments

The digital world has expanded and impacted the traditional ways of teaching and learning. Games have become a tool to motivate and engage the digital generation. Good educational games are the ones that "inspire interest, creativity, and social interaction” (Squire, 2011).

http://www.informatist.net/Login.aspx

Informatist is a free online business simulation game. It offers students a platform to practice, learn and apply business lessons.  The interaction with other players promotes an environment where learning and playing build up learners’ skills. Players can register and play without any additional downloads.  Moreover, the software offers guides to learners, which simplify the navigation of the program. This interactive game comes with business fields, products to manufacture, private and public companies, stock market, business mergers, and a large number of employees to work with.

Students in business classes can benefit from this game. For example, my son who grew up playing video games and is majoring in business at CSUN university could be easily motivated and interested in registering with the Informatist’s website.  Moreover, as an adult educator, I would integrate this game to “pique players’ interests” (Squire, 2011). Such game can improve students’ assimilation of topics that are abstract, as well as create “social interaction of different forms and lead to productive practices” (Squire, 2011).

www.french-games.net/frenchgames

French-games is a very interactive free website that covers more than 56 topics in the French language. Neither download nor registration is needed to access the site. The user can start learning any topic of his choice and focus on learning the vocabulary words before playing the games. Tests are also included to enable users to test their knowledge before moving on to the next topic. To increase assimilation of the topic, the site offers 5 French games with activities. Within these games, the learner can choose the topic that interests him/her and deepen his/her learning by matching vocabulary words and short sentences to pictures. Other games are “the beetle and the bee”, “Pelmanism”, “Four in a row”, and “Hangman”. Tutorials are implemented in the site and users are encouraged to visit them before they start playing.

Integrating this game in my virtual class enables the students to really focus on the contents, enhance their skills, challenge themselves and be the owners of their learning. It is an additional resource that strengthens and deepens their knowledge in the target language. Moreover, students can work in groups, which will create a social learning community.

Reference:

Squire, K. (2011) Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.