Learning with Games – Yu-kai Chou: Gamification & Behavioral Design

Why Game Based Learning and Learning Games are essential

Humans have an innate desire to learn. Learning is one of our most fundamental activities. In fact, when things become too easy and no more learning opportunities are there, it becomes boring.

We don’t like to learn from long lectures or huge paragraphs of text. They learn from 3 ways:

1. They learn from trial & error.
2. They learn from watching other people do it.
3. They learn from Stories

1) They learn from trial & error.

Imagine at primitive times – people just figuring how a stick works, or inventing the wheel – the process of trying things, seeing it work or fail, and then iterating, is very engaging.

2) They learn from watching people do it

We like to learn from watching other people do the activates. If they succeed, we are happy for them. But when they fail, our brains take special notice.

This is likely why we think it’s funny when people something stupid and hurt themselves – our brains want us to take special attention to this event by making it pleasurable.

We would even want to tell this #fail activity to our friends so we could all laugh at it. It’s not just about being morbid, it is a survival trait that uses joy to spread important lessons (much like gamification and learning with games)

3) They learn from Stories

Even when we are listening through long monologues, we feel immersed when it is in story form, with people we care about, and events that surprise us. Think about times when people in a village sit around the campfire and listen to the elder talk about experiences and adventures he had in his youth. Our brains are fully engaged, and we likely learning all the lessons.

The relevance of of Educational Games

These are the 3 ways our brains like to learn. But what shook up the system is that the things we have to learn in the past century became dramatically more complex – things like advanced mathematics, philosophy etc.

Unfortunately, the technology to deliver the education was always stuck at the same place – we rely on pen and paper, and to some extent powerpoint. And therefore, the tools we have failed at engaging our brains to learn the most important things in life.

This is where educational games and learning games come in place.

The opportunity of Learning Games

Because of new gaming technology, for the first time in history, students can now learn through

1) Trial & Error by playing and replaying through the game

2) Watch other students and players play the game and learn from that

3) Instead of listening to a story, they actually become part of the story.

And this is why Educational Games are so impactful.

Nowadays you will find a variety of stellar learning games and educational games for every grade level that teaches all sorts of topics in a classroom, including math, science, research, writing, and language.

This helps educators and students grown and learn in schools and classrooms. Some even help engage parents to become of the interplay between the teachers and the children.

No longer would kids need to deal with boring school skills and tests, but students become excited through the gamified class that now involves teamwork and gameplay.

Every classroom can now help students through learning from games and math to achieve maximum fun.

This will help them become excited in school, while succeed in the fields of math, science, language, and more.

Educational games and learning games makes learning amazing for teachers and students alike.

In order to progress in our skills, free our knowledge, focus on distance learning, and support our assignments and scores, educational games are definitely the best way to go.

Of course, the big question is what Educational games to use and discover, so that students and teachers can both growth and have fun together while improving their skills.

For that, check out my others posts, such as Top Ten Learning Games For Kids.

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