An easy way to get kids to want to play educational games is giving them freedom of choice.
"Alright, settle down you little bastards. Today I can lecture you for an hour or you can play this neat educational game that even stumps me from time to time."
I actually had a teacher do that (word for word) in highschool. No one in the class managed to beat his score...that day. It took all of a week for the worst student in our class to get the highest score.
After he noticed how a little choice and competition got everyone wanting to use this tool and made it a successful tool he one upped himself the following year. He used the same game, and tracked all scores for every student he had and whichever class had the highest average at the end of the game (was relatively short history game) he bought pizza for the class.
If only I could remember the games name. But the teacher apparently still does this (asked one of the kids in highschool that lives on my street, she actually had him as a teacher the year before) and the only minor difference from then to now is he doesnt challenge people to beat his score as he always scores 100% having played it so much.
Granted this will not work in all or even half of the classrooms around the world yet alone in america but its a good starting point. Also I believe introducing the "choice" system to allow the best students to opt out of playing the game and just reading the text book. Because lets face it. Not everyone learns the same way. Most if not all people can learn it if its interesting to them but not everyone can learn if its a stepping stone to get school done and has little to no impact on their future plans. Also not everyone learns from lecturing or reading it or hands on or whatever method you learn worst/best at.
So just because we CAN make educational games does not mean we should force it on people or even expect everyone to use it just because its a viable option.
Johnny has a 4.2 GPA and learns fine from normal routine study habits and reading from a textbook.
Jackie has a 1.2 GPA because she has trouble with maintaining focus on lectures and reading boring ass books.
Theres no reason to force Johnny to play an educational game. He can if he wants to with everyone else but no reason to. Where as the game may benefit Jackie 100fold because it engages her brain while cramming it with the educational properties she needs to raise her grade.
I believe giving them students themselves a choice between different methods of learning would be the best option. Hell have teachers that specialize in different teaching methods and formats.
Teacher A lectures (hopefully not in a monotone cause then even the best students might doze off)
Teacher B uses a more hands on teaching method (where applicable because lets face it, not everyone lesson can be taught Hands On <cough>sexed<cough>).
Teacher C uses a self study approach (giving the students a problem they have to find the answer for by looking it up, and no its not like homework. Had a teacher ask my class between the theorized methods to solve world hunger, which one seems more applicable in modern society in america...ya she was awesome)
Teacher D uses games
All I can come up with off the top of my head, deal with it.
But have these options available then have the student counselors talk with the student and see which teaching type would be the best (or look at their damnable track record in classes and know what type of teaching method their previous teachers used...oh wait expecting someone to do their job, sorry) for them to have the best chance at succeeding.
Yeah my idea has its flaws and plenty of em. Also has its merits. Could it work? hell if I know, im a HS dropout with no college degrees or even a job at this point. I do know its asking the school systems to do A LOT more work which with overflowing classrooms and the massive stampede of kids in the system now adays will be painful. But if it can stop the production of "broken cogs" in the society machine like me from popping up as often....why not give it a try?
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"Alright, settle down you little bastards. Today I can lecture you for an hour or you can play this neat educational game that even stumps me from time to time."
I actually had a teacher do that (word for word) in highschool. No one in the class managed to beat his score...that day. It took all of a week for the worst student in our class to get the highest score.
After he noticed how a little choice and competition got everyone wanting to use this tool and made it a successful tool he one upped himself the following year. He used the same game, and tracked all scores for every student he had and whichever class had the highest average at the end of the game (was relatively short history game) he bought pizza for the class.
If only I could remember the games name. But the teacher apparently still does this (asked one of the kids in highschool that lives on my street, she actually had him as a teacher the year before) and the only minor difference from then to now is he doesnt challenge people to beat his score as he always scores 100% having played it so much.
Granted this will not work in all or even half of the classrooms around the world yet alone in america but its a good starting point. Also I believe introducing the "choice" system to allow the best students to opt out of playing the game and just reading the text book. Because lets face it. Not everyone learns the same way. Most if not all people can learn it if its interesting to them but not everyone can learn if its a stepping stone to get school done and has little to no impact on their future plans. Also not everyone learns from lecturing or reading it or hands on or whatever method you learn worst/best at.
So just because we CAN make educational games does not mean we should force it on people or even expect everyone to use it just because its a viable option.
Johnny has a 4.2 GPA and learns fine from normal routine study habits and reading from a textbook.
Jackie has a 1.2 GPA because she has trouble with maintaining focus on lectures and reading boring ass books.
Theres no reason to force Johnny to play an educational game. He can if he wants to with everyone else but no reason to. Where as the game may benefit Jackie 100fold because it engages her brain while cramming it with the educational properties she needs to raise her grade.
I believe giving them students themselves a choice between different methods of learning would be the best option. Hell have teachers that specialize in different teaching methods and formats.
Teacher A lectures (hopefully not in a monotone cause then even the best students might doze off)
Teacher B uses a more hands on teaching method (where applicable because lets face it, not everyone lesson can be taught Hands On <cough>sexed<cough>).
Teacher C uses a self study approach (giving the students a problem they have to find the answer for by looking it up, and no its not like homework. Had a teacher ask my class between the theorized methods to solve world hunger, which one seems more applicable in modern society in america...ya she was awesome)
Teacher D uses games
All I can come up with off the top of my head, deal with it.
But have these options available then have the student counselors talk with the student and see which teaching type would be the best (or look at their damnable track record in classes and know what type of teaching method their previous teachers used...oh wait expecting someone to do their job, sorry) for them to have the best chance at succeeding.
Yeah my idea has its flaws and plenty of em. Also has its merits. Could it work? hell if I know, im a HS dropout with no college degrees or even a job at this point. I do know its asking the school systems to do A LOT more work which with overflowing classrooms and the massive stampede of kids in the system now adays will be painful. But if it can stop the production of "broken cogs" in the society machine like me from popping up as often....why not give it a try?
Long post, sorry >_>
tl;dr? to bad go read it.