Video games, it’s fun, right? The joyous feeling of coming home from school and hopping online to play games with your friends. It’s an escape from reality, a stress reliever, and something everyone can enjoy. There is a large variety of video games that can range from RPG Open World games with an immersive story like Red Dead Redemption 2, or tactical team-based shooter games like Overwatch 2. However, most video games add little value to life and serve as a fun distraction. What if we use the advantage of video games to educate people?

In fact, we already do have video games that reflect on history and benefit the education of people. Some games that display these educational values are the Oregon Trail, Prodigy, and Classic Animal Jam. These games offer tons of learning opportunities by either giving us the experience of the people of the past or actively teaching certain subjects such as zoology and math. 

Let’s dig into Prodigy. “Learning through play” is the core of this game. It’s an adaptive game that adjusts according to grade level and stays close to the curriculum. Prodigy offers math and English questions that are aligned with educational standards around the world. What motivates students to learn is that the game offers gameplay similar to Pokemon, a well-known franchise, that makes learning fun and engaging. 

Another game that plays a great role in education is Minecraft Education Edition. Minecraft was well known for its simplistic design with lots of room for creativity. From creating bases and surviving to building structures that represent real-life buildings. Minecraft came out with a new edition that is focused on the education of students. Minecraft Education edition helps students build collaboration skills, communication, systems thinking, etc. This game is available for schools to use to learn from.

Where is the data? Well, Shift E-Learning has discovered that with educational games, the visuals improve learning by 400%. And according to “Online College Courses,” 70% of teachers find that students tend to engage more when educational video games are present. Ryan Jenkins shared from his studies that 97% of youth play video games. 

So yes, video games can make great use for the sake of education. Most youths play video games, so introducing learning elements into video games would further improve education, and engagement and encourage creativity.  The future is now, and we must modernize our system for the better.