Today’s highly demanding job market requires that professionals have a wide range of skills. More and more families are looking to home-school their kids or to supplement their learning. Luckily, technology is changing the way children are educated and Lido Learning is a company at the head of the field.
Since the advent of the internet, children are acquiring more skills at faster rates. The popularity of video games and other online hobbies makes kids more receptive to picking up new skills through these avenues. With that in mind, educators are now developing innovative ways your kids can add to their knowledge arsenal while having fun.
Contents
What is Game Based Learning?
Game Based Learning, or GBL for short, is gameplay that results in learning. It is a method of teaching that merges aspects of popular games with learning-driven concepts. GBL has a specific goal that the student works toward by choosing a course of action, much like in a game. Along the way, there are consequences for each choice, making the learning experience all-the-more realistic.
This last point is very instrumental in the process. Being able to make mistakes and correct their course gives students a way to learn that transcends conventional teaching methods.
Benefits Backed by Science
GBL has six important advantages over conventional learning. These benefits become obvious to any parent that chooses to trust their child’s education to an experienced GBL service provider.
1. Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
Other than in sports, your child doesn’t get many opportunities to hone their hand-eye coordination. Reading content from a book or a screen and completing exercises about it doesn’t offer much in that area.
Games that use a keyboard, mouse or gamepad in order to enter inputs develop hand-eye coordination. Students have to follow the action on the screen while interacting with the device. This real-time analysis of data while reacting to it promotes the building of new skills. Reaction times improve and your child’s nervous system becomes accustomed to calculating data in real-time.
2. Sharpens Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving is one of the five motor skills that relate to student development. Your kids’ ability to solve puzzles is sharpened when they follow a GBL program.
Strategic thinking is necessary for completing a task in an educational game. This skill speeds up when your child has to make quick decisions. Every time the student goes back and tries to find a solution to a problem, they gain critical skills that carry over to future endeavors.
3. Increases Memory Capacity
Memory works by creating new synapses in the brain. This means that neurons create new connections that represent a specific memory. The greater the ability to make these new connections, the greater memory capacity your child will have.
4. Helps Children with Learning Disorders
Students with attention disorders are not uncommon. These can impede your child’s ability to get the most out of their learning. Fortunately, you can help your kid train their way through an attention disorder with GBL. While these conditions are neurological and may not disappear, your child can create automatic patterns of reaction. This can help them focus on the task at hand.
Research by major institutions proves that games help kids with attention disorders. A child with such a disorder can harness their greatest potential by choosing a different route. GBL offers them this route.
5. Accelerated Computer Literacy
IT skills are another motor skill that experts associate with GBL. As a parent, if your kid plays any sort of video game, you will notice that their ability to handle digital interfaces is quite accelerated. They may be able to surf the web for information or help you change your mobile phone settings. GBL builds on this inherent ability to pick up computer skills and helps them build computer literacy.
From an early age, your child can learn concepts such as device security through the use of usernames and passwords. They can learn to browse the internet properly and use a mouse and keyboard to their fullest extent.
6. Boosts Practical Skill-Building
GBL isn’t only about computer skills. A lot of what your child will learn will be applicable outside of the digital realm. With games including themes such as adventures and sports, the list of practical skills present in GBL is endless.
For instance, an adventure game can help build map reading skills. It can also teach your kid geography and rudimentary anthropology.
A sports team simulation, on the other hand, can teach valuable personal finance skills. It can instill leadership qualities that are sharpened through proper decision-making.
What is the Difference Between GBL and Gamification?
Gamification is when educators apply aspects of game-playing to their teaching efforts. These game elements are applied to non-game-based teaching methods. This can also be seen outside the education space. Promotional offers are a good example of this. Many businesses offer loyalty points that can be cashed out at a future time. This resembles games in which the character has to gather coins or other objects for use later on.
GBL, on the other hand, fully immerses students in a game environment. All learning is done within the realm of the game where many different factors can be measured and altered. GBL teaches specific skills whereas gamified learning focuses on promoting desired behaviors.
What is the Future of Game-Based Education?
Expect GBL to become a greater part of learning. With more and more applications arising, students will soon be using this technology to learn everything from foreign languages to history and mathematics.
New technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality will make GBL even more interactive. Students will be able to interact with video and audio in a very immersive way, making the experience as authentic as possible. Learning Spanish, for instance, may no longer result in an accent as your child will be absorbing the knowledge as if they were living in Madrid or Barcelona.
How Can Your Child Take Advantage of This Trend?
When searching for a GBL service provider, it’s important to find a reliable professional. Lido Learning, we offer you the ability to book a free class. This gives you the opportunity to do your due diligence and judge for yourself. Get your child on the road to success today by giving us a try.