Week 14: Using Games for Teaching & Learning

In this week’s class, we discussed using games on the computer to facilitate teaching and learning. Computer games are incredibly important to the modern classroom as they have changed the format for learning. Current students have been raised in an era of technology unlike previous generations, and therefore are more likely to use computers and understand them better. Games facilitate learning in youth by making learning so much fun, they may not even realize that they are doing schoolwork. Computer games for learning combine the modern technology and fun factors to create a world in which learning is both accessible to any schedule and interactive through the media outlets and computer world.



This game, The Oregon Trial, is a poplar elementary school game which teaches a variety of subjects while students try to travel across the virtual Oregon Trail. History, mathematics and grammar are learned in the game through the time period reference, and purchases made by each family. Critical thinking skills are developed through the challenges the students face when travelling the Oregon Trail, and the choices they make to continue.



This is a basic educational computer game helps students learn shapes and colors while enjoying cartoon characters. They are learning basic thinking skills.



This is an example of a math game using a frog character to keep the younger students interested. The benefits of using a character would be that it distracts the students from thinking they are working by making the math fun.



This is an example of music lessons through a computer game. This could be very beneficial as not everyone has the time or money for piano lessons and with this program, the learner could fit the lessons into their schedule for a one-time fee for the software.

As a public relations major, any sort of multimedia use to help facilitate learning is useful. Public Relations practitioners are in the business of generating interest I a client’s product or organization. Therefore, an online game could be an interesting product to release in a media kit for, for example, an amusement park. The game could be educational in some way, while also informing the players of the amusement park or organization.