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Can gaming revolutionise education?

As experts warn that so-called educational TV programmes and DVDs might not be the best way for children to learn, quib.ly editor-in-chief Holly Seddon investigates the future of games in education

I feel like I spend an inordinate amount of time writing, is X the future of Y…? But the truth is, we’re at a very exciting crossroads and sometimes that X really could kick Y up the bum and totally change things for the better. Case in point, games in education.

If kids don’t relate to what they’re being taught, if they don’t feel it’s relevant to them, if they don’t enjoy it, they engage less and they learn less. It’s not rocket science. And it’s nothing new. But as children now grow up with more experience of words on a screen than on a page, it stands to reason that using the technology they use in their free time as an educational resource can only be a good idea.



Education Secretary Michael Gove doesn’t agree. He infamously dismissed teaching through material that kids enjoyed engaging with. Speaking to an audience of teachers at private school Brighton College in May, he snorted (figuratively):

“You come home to find your 17-year-old daughter engrossed in a book. Which would delight you more - if it were Twilight or Middlemarch?

“You see your son is totally absorbed, hunched over the family laptop. You steal a look over his shoulder - and what would please you more - to see him playing Angry Birds, or coding?”

What’s the right answer, Mr Gove?

“I suspect those of us who are parents would recognise that there are all too many children and young people only too happy to lose themselves in Stephanie Meyer, while away hours flinging electronic fowl at virtual pigs, hang out rather than shape up and dream of fame finding them rather than them pursuing glory.

“And I also suspect that all of us who are parents would be delighted if our children were learning to love George Eliot, write their own computer programmes, daring to take themselves out of their comfort zone and aspiring to be faster, higher or stronger.”


Unfortunately, back in the real world, where we can’t all send our kids to Brighton College, we have to meet these kids halfway. More than halfway, actually. Why not make education fun? And also, if kids are reading the Twilight series, rather than just watching the films, that’s wonderful!

Speaking of Gove’s wretched Angry Birds (because clearly it is that zero sum, you’re either coding or you’re playing Angry Birds, no one child has ever done both…), those Finns are recognising that no-one knows how to engage kids better than games makers. We may not like it, but it’s true. 

Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, has announced an “ambitious new platform” incorporating the national curriculum of Finland.

This is awesome, and it’s not just me who thinks so. Dr Amanda Gummer, founder of goodtoyguide.com and expert on Quib.ly, is currently developing a goodappguide to promote and celebrate the useful, educational and fun apps.

She says: “Games are an amazingly effective tool that teach and develop all skills including social and educational.

“Just look at how quickly iPads have been adopted in Early Years settings because teachers know how quickly they can engage a classroom and personalise learning.”



Patrick Carroll, a Primary School Teacher and ICT coordinator, agrees:

“There are a wealth of fun, interactive games that can engage children across the educational spectrum and the amount that are out there is ever-increasing as people are now appreciating that games can be very effective means of making children want to learn.

“Older children love games such as Minecraft as it offers unlimited possibilities for creativity without expressly pointing out the educational skills that are being used. Whilst younger children become engrossed in apps such as Beebot because they love the challenge of overcoming ever increasingly difficult obstacles without a specific learning objective so that they can then continue to the next colourful engaging level.

“The directional and control skills that are clearly necessary to complete these obstacles are brought through as the children learn to overcome mistakes.”

Patrick Carroll teaches at Shaw Wood Academy in Doncaster. As an ICT specialist and British Council ambassador he has won numerous national and international awards for his collaborative ICT projects. This year he was shortlisted for the TES ICT teacher of the year and won the British Council etwinning ICT collaborative project of the year.

Teachers like him, experts like Dr Gummer and revolutionary companies like Rovio, who instinctively understand how to engage kids, fill me with far more hope than politicians scoffing at popular fiction and dreaming of a mythical generation of Classics-reading workhorses with no interest in play.


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Five educational games recommended by Dr. Amanda Gummer:

www.studyladder.co.uk - a website already increasingly introduced in schools.
www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies - a favourite amongst parents but unfortunately not as cool as Angry Birds.
Meteor Math - a great app developing numeracy skills.
Appen - A new pen used with the iPad to develop writing ability whilst playing games.
Karisma Kidz, coming soon, an online platform to help children learn to manage their moods and behaviour and enable them to become effective learners.