Educational progress was heading towards its zenith sustainedly until the world met the cold shoulders of the novel COVID-19 in late 2019. Just like its disruption collapsed all
other global structured and orderly formats, it made the formal educational system dysfunctional as well. But in point of fact, the dysfunctionality of something brings about the functionality of the other—nature says―thereby fueling the e-learning on the behalf of gaming when 1.37 billion students in 138 countries suffered educational institutes’ closure as per the UNESCO statistics during this pandemic.
Findings
According to a recent report by Newzoo senior market analyst―Torn Wijman―the revenue of the global gaming market will be amounted to $159.3 by 2020 with a 9.3% year-on-year increase, escalating the number of gamers up-to three billion by 2023. This wide-spread occupation has not been attributed to the entertainment grounds only, but it has provided the students with a rostrum to carry on their education, being remoted in the course of this pandemic era.
Video games are usually disdained, as they are considered to be the fount of misspending time, but as a matter of fact, they are the dormant tool for education purposes. A literate person is the one who learns from any unknown scaled-down source, but capable of applying that learned skill in other various aspects too, and video games ensure such literacy. It encompasses the conception of basic formal educational subjects including mathematics, science, history, and via video games, kids unintentionally learn them without being grumpy and crabby.
List of Subjects Taught through Gaming
- Mathematics
- Science
- History
A very matter of fact that must be stated while keeping the whole lockdown situation at home is that Casinos were closed thus, the total mental entertainment for more children was absolutely nothing. Thus, it was really considered that children must be taught online so they can have a relaxing time at studies.
Mathematics
- The game designing at the back end, numbers trigonometry, calculus and algebra, and kids learn this most hateful subject with keen interest through video games.
- Prodigy games hold the common-core math for 5-14 years kids upholding 75000 math puzzles which enhance cognitive learning skills.
- Practical demonstration always clarifies the conception, and through these video games, practical implementation of linear algebra can be understood in a way better manner.
Science
- As far as science is concerned, video gaming refines the perception, cognition, and cognition of kids.
- The complete focus of kids on their video games acuminates their attention abilities, hand-eye coordination, and decision making together with the boost in their sharpened memory and listening abilities. It assists students with Dyslexia also.
- Games like Roblox and Minecraft explain scientific principles like climate change and cellular biology in an immensely captivating manner to the kids.
History
- History tops the list of all tedious subjects, but video gaming has twirled its tediousness into engrossing attentiveness.
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey foregrounds kids with the interaction with crusaders, French-American revolution and informs about Egypt, and ancient and recreated ancient Greece.
- Other games like Call of Duty: WWII, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, highlights the great worldly incidents via this enchanting approach.
As stated by the Associate Professor and Director of games and emerging media at New York’s Marist college―Karen Schrier― “Games support literacy skills in part because they enable students to play and learn in authentic worlds they care about, where they need to read to be able to solve missions and interpret clues”, like in Roblox.
Shen-Li Lee in her book Brainchild, reveals the sequence of factors necessary for kids’ proper mental and physical nurture and upbringing including the provision of a carefree and congenial atmosphere for their mental maturation. Stress allays kids’ attentiveness and cognitive abilities, as under the pressure our brain secretes Cortisol hormone which―when secreted in greater amount― affects the hippocampus, thereby lays a negative impact on our memory whereas, on its contrary, Dopamine, and Serotonin are secreted under the emotions of gaiety and contentment which boosts up our cognitions, considerations, and contemplations. A research was made regarding this aspect, and a group of students of 4 years was asked to orderly arrange the puzzle blocks in the least given time, while on the other hand another group of students was asked to do the same task, but before they were asked to think of something that makes them contented. Interestingly, the second grouped students arranged the puzzle blocks earlier, and with the least errors as compared to the first group.
As pronounced by Hermann Ebbinghaus―a German psychologist prominently known for his pre-eminent forgetting curve― “We forget 50% of what we learn unless we put it in practice as our brains exert on “Use it or lose it” principle.” This is how the virtual reality of video gaming has targeted the basics of amplified and finer imaginative education. It targeted neuroplasticity which is the brain’s tensile to adapt and alter things as an outcome of regular worldly interactions. These video games fulfill this principle, as their fascinating animations grasp the kids’ heed and scrutiny, and they keep on repetitively learning things.
Like the rest of video games, online free pokies games are also within the reach of people now. A pokie is a gaming machine which was operated for the very first time in New South Wales state of Australia in 1956. But concurrently, as we are struck by the trouncing of this global pandemic, free pokies online games supplement the tangible casinos and pokies at our doorsteps with no compromise on its rejoice and exultation.
Concluding Abstract
Gaming is not a renewal of institutional education, rather an apt adjunct of it in this foreboding ominous global pandemic. It portrays virtual reality and brings the distant world to hands. Kevin Peloquin, a history teacher of college Saint-Hilaire in Montreal was to take his students on a Greece trip, but a novel came across their way which eventually transpired their introduction to virtual reality. He instigated his students with Ubisoft’s games like Assassin’s creed which made them access their direct virtual tour to Greece. In this manner, students were pounded, struck my interest, and kept in touch with worldly affairs.
