educational game educational games are games explicitly designed with educational purposes or which have incidental or secondary educational value all types of games may be used in an educational environment educational games are games that are designed to help people to learn about certain subjects expand concepts reinforce development understand a historical event or culture or assist them in learning a skill as they play game types include board card and video games an educational game is a game designed to teach humans about a specific subject and to teach them a skill as educators governments and parents realize the psychological need and benefits of gaming have on learning this educational tool has become mainstream games are interactive play that teach us goals rules adaptation problem solving interaction all represented as a story they satisfy our fundamental need to learn by providing enjoyment passionate involvement structure motivation ego gratification adrenaline creativity social interaction and emotion in the game itself while the learning takes place video games educational video game and video games in education with the increase and availability of technological devices there has been a shift in what types of games people play video or electronic gaming has become more widely used than traditional board games barab 2009 defines conceptual play as a state of engagement that involves a projection into the role of character who b engaged in a partly fictional problem context c must apply conceptual understandings to make sense of and ultimately transform the context gamebased learning gamebased learning gbl is a type of game play that has defined learning outcomes generally gamebased learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world a systematic review investigated the effects of educational games for mental health students educational game plus standard training compared to standard training for mental health professionals summary current very limited evidence suggests educational games could help mental health students gain more points in their tests especially if they have left revision to the last minute the one salient study should be refined and repeated outcome findings in words findings in numbers quality of evidence knowledge no significant improvement in test scores 10 students had a slightly improved chance of improvement in test scores when receiving educational game plus standard training this finding is based on data of very low quality or 006 001 to 027 very low average test score high good on average students receiving educational game plus standard training scored 6 higher than students with standard training there was a clear difference between the groups this finding is based on data of low quality md 6 higher 263 higher to 937 higher low no study reported any data on outcomes such as adverse effects mental state quality of life and information relating to time in services origins in his classical essay upon the aesthetic education of man friedrich schiller discusses play as a force of civilization which helps humans rise above their instincts and become members of enlightened communities he states that humans are only fully human when they play while the text is limited by the authors beliefs in concepts such as freedom and beauty it nevertheless sets the stage for johan huizingas classical study homo ludens games have long been employed as a means of education using the ancient game of chess noblemen of the middle ages learned strategies of war during the civil war volunteers from rhode island played american kriegsspiel which had originally been created in 1812 for training prussian officersofwar theory according to richard n van eck there are three main approaches to creating software that stimulates cognitive growth in the gamer these three approaches are building games from scratch created by educators and programmers integrate commercial offtheshelf cots and creating games from scratch by the students the most time and costeffective approach to designing these educational games is to incorporate cots games into the classroom with the understanding of the learning outcomes the instructor has for the course games often have a fantasy element that engages players in a learning activity through narrative or storylines educational video games can motivate children and allow them to develop an awareness of consequentiality the success of gamebased learning strategies owes to active participation and interaction being at the center of the experience and signals that current educational methods are not engaging students enough the use of collaborative gamebased roleplay for learning provides an opportunity for learners to apply acquired knowledge and to experiment and get feedback in the form of consequences or rewards thus getting the experiences in the safe virtual world the builtin learning process of games is what makes a game enjoyable the progress a player makes in a game is through learning it is the process of the human mind grasping and coming to understand a new system the progress of understanding a new concept through gaming makes an individual feel a sense of reward whether the game is considered entertainment call of duty or serious faaapproved flight simulator welldesigned games that motivate players are what make them ideal learning environments identification with the character within the video game is an important factor in the learning potential of the gamer some of the electronic games allow the gamer to create an avatar that is designed and owned by the gamer this character is an expression of the human creating the virtual character application traditionally technology used in school operates usually to solve problems in a fun way particularly in mathematics they usually make up case studies designed to introduce students to certain technologies in an effort to prepare them for a future major assignment that requires the aforementioned technology they have also been developed to work in the virtual world in the future technology and games are expected to be used in simulation environments to simulate real world issues in the professional sector such as flight training simulations are already used in an effort to prepare pilots for training before actually going out into planes these training sessions are used to replicate real life stresses without the risk factor associated with flying simulationgames are used in other professional areas as well a spythemed learning game has been used to improve sales skills at avaya before deciding how to use gamebased learning the trainer must first determine what they would like the trainees to learn a trainer that fails to focus training around a central idea runs the risk of using a game that fails to connect with the learners to prevent this tailor the material to the demographicage group familiarity educational pretextso that the material is neither too difficult for nor too familiar to the learner educational toy edutainment games and learning gamification of learning genomics digital lab global challenge award mouse practice reacting games quest atlantis footnotes shatz itamar 2015 using gamification and gaming in order to promote risk taking in the language learning process pdf meital national conference haifa israel technion pp227232 retrieved 1 march 2017 video games stimulate learning bbc news march 18 2002 dostl j 2009 educational software and computer games tools of modern education journal of technology and information education palack university olomouc 1 1 2428 doi105507jtie2009003 issn1803537x lin g h c kung t w t chien s c 2011 computer games functioning as motivation stimulants pdf international conference on computer assisted language learning call james paul gee 2003 what video games have to teach us about learning and literacy palgrave macmillan isbn9781403961693 