Games have been used in recent years to increase motivation, engagement and learning and as a game lover, I grew up learning about football competitions , football players, and their respective countries by playing FIFA, PES, Winning Eleven and other video football games. This motivated me to investigate how the use of games as a learning tool impacted the education sector in Nigeria and how the Nigerian curriculum can benefit from this technology.
A simple research to investigate the current system of learning was carried out, focusing mainly on junior secondary schools. The research focused on a way to integrate games into learning by developing a game that enables students to learn geography.
Introduction
The Internet is a rich source of information, and a lot of people create and use information available online on a daily basis. Nevertheless, teachers alone are incapable of providing all the information needed for learning on the internet. The traditional teaching and unilateral knowledge acquisition has not attracted the attention of young people and cannot fulfill the needs of the information society because the convenience of network and interaction results in increasing time and location flexibility. E-learning has become the development trend of education and learning in the modern day world.
As the players spend more money on virtual goods, the game industry is unaffected by the economic downturn and keeps growing. Online games seem to have gain much popularity. Different students have different styles of learning such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic . In a bid to improve students’ performance, using various learning styles, there is often a need to explore various new learning opportunities which can address the complexity of learners in the classroom to capture students’ interest and purpose. It should be for all categories of learners which includes the fast, average and the slow learners. Learning occurs via the utilization of various resources.
Existing Foreign Game based learning system
Although there are existing foreign platforms that incorporate gaming with learning for kids , none of these platforms are focused on the Nigeria education curriculum . Below is a summary of some highlighted educational games.
Funbrain– One of the most popular educational gaming sites around. Not only does this site cover a variety of subjects, it also caters to K-8th graders, and has nice resources for teachers as well.
Game Classroom- Excellent, safe, teacher-approved, state-standard-aligned games for grades K-6. Also, provides lots of teacher resources, including videos, lesson plans, worksheets, and more.
Gameaquarium – Great site for games for kids in K-6 , it focuses on all types of subjects. Videos, eBooks, and teacher resources can be found on the website as well.
Moshi Monsters – The world of Moshi Monsters has been created by Mind Candy, a company that loves developing games and new forms of interactive entertainment.
BrainNook– Innovative site that allows kids to play educational games on mathematics and English in safe virtual worlds where they interact and compete with other kids. Teachers can sign up their classes via the teacher portal.
Benefits of Game based learning
The following are some of the benefits of game based learning systems;
- Powerful utilisation of pictures and videos to pass knowledge across to users.
- All categories of users are carried along to ensure that learning is achieved as there are different levels in a gaming system (easy , medium and hard).
- It helps in the development of strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
- It helps with socio-emotional growth through development of “soft” skills.
- Interactive and enjoyable way of learning.
- Powerful tool for introducing courses, concepts and subjects to students.
- Adding sound to the system helps to ease stress while learning.
- Increase in a child’s memory capacity.
- Student centered learning
My Approach
The research was carried out using Iterative and Incremental models, and the system usability test was carried out with different users. A simple game for learning geography was implemented and some students were engaged to test the game.
Figure A: A question page on the game learning system
Figure B : An answer page on the game learning system
Figure B : Another answer page on the game learning system
It was discovered that junior secondary school students loved the idea of incorporating gaming with learning and found learning geography interesting. Building a geography game learning system for such students would bring fun to learning while helping to bring out the best in students.
This system could be incorporated with other subjects asides Geography. The introduction of gaming in learning geography would promote knowledge of geography among students. Game based learning is an alternative and interesting way of learning geography.
In conclusion, the game-based learning system would serve as one of the frameworks for impacting knowledge in students. This is a new addition for helping students learn geography in secondary schools. This application applies ICT techniques in problem solving. This research further emphasizes computer science as a field of study that seeks to solve everyday problems in other fields of life by applying relevant tools and methodologies. Nigeria as a country should incorporate game based learning into its syllabus.
Email: Olufemititilayosamuel@gmail.com
Samuel, a Software Engineer
