Train Any Knowledge You Want

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about how computer games can be used to learn any knowledge in a highly motivating way.

Acquiring new knowledge not only requires a learner to memorize and understand theoretical information, but also to gain experience with its explicit application. This often is achieved with repetitive training allowing for the experience of new problems that demand the application of the learning content. However, in many cases, repetitive training can become boring, is expensive or even dangerous. As a result, computer-based simulations are developed that allow learners to practive the knowledge in a safe environment.

Computer games are a special form of simulations as they not only encode a particular knowledge in their game mechanics but also allow for an adjustment of its abstractness. Computer games not necessarily need to simulate every detail of a knowledge and hence can present and demand it in a more intuitive way. This also is a critical element of making a game fun to play and highly intuitive. That way, players easily can gain experience with a particular knowledge on a meta level or focus on a particular aspect without being overwhelmed by its complexity.

However, like real training simulations, computer games can also encode all aspects, information and principles of a particular knowledge. Thus, they achieve an accurate simulation of it which potentially is enhanced with some additional rewarding gameplay elements increasing the motivational aspects of using the game for a knowledge training.

In conclusion, computer games can be utilized to demonstrate and to demand any knowledge. Moreover, they can also demonstrate the knowledge’s application in a meaningful way by embedding it in a narrative or using it as a means to solve puzzles. This potentially increases a learner’s motivation to tackle the virtual training exercises as the knowledge’s pure theoretical aspects are then hidden in the gameplay.