Educational games are a new and innovative way for teachers to reach students of all ages. Games can be used to educate preschool children up and through their adult years. According to Virvou, Katsionis, and Manos (2005) the process of learning is a very complex cognitive task that can be very imposing on students since it requires a lot of effort for them to learn. To ease the effort and create a way of enforcement, academics now uses educational gaming inside and outside of the classroom.

Just as with children, the use of educational games has increased for adults. Adult gaming is not confined to the virtual domain of the computer but extends the gaming experience out into the real world. Additionally, gaming, has evolved since its birth in the 1960s (Marston, 2013). Games can take place on city streets, in a remote wilderness, a classroom, or a living room. This literature review will look at the use and benefits of gaming in the educational setting for children and adult.

Children's use of gaming in education

According to Presada (2015) it is generally accepted that games provide a stimulating teaching and learning classroom environment. Children enjoy playing games, and they demonstrate a positive change in attitude and physical self-perception. Researchers refer to the use of gaming for learning and the Game Centered Approach (GCA). The GCA advocates learners playing the game as the central organizational feature of a lesson. In addition to being the center of the lesson, gaming is also used as an additional resource to enhance the learning experience outside of the classroom (Miller, 2015). This review will look to identify uses, advantages and disadvantages of gaming in education.

Use of Gaming in Children Education

Gaming in children education is used to assist children with learning new things that is often hard to begin. It also assist with retention of information. Gaming has been shown to be used in children education with:

• Language (Lu, Ming, & Tam, 2014)
• Information retention (Alshaiji, 2013)
• Math skills (Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011)
• Visual Arts (Buonincontro, Foster, 2014)
• Literature (Presada, 2015)
• Physical Education (Shewmake, Merrie, & Calleja, 2015).

Advantages of Gaming in Education

Gaming is noted to be a distraction to students since it is often viewed as play time. When properly used, gaming can enhance the learning experience for students by making it easy and enjoyable. Although this may be the case, gaming enhances the students ability to learn literature in the classroom since it eases the atmosphere of learning (Presada, 2015).

• Educational Games increase the academic performance of poor performers by motivating the learner to engage in lesson (Virvou, Katsionis, & Manos, 2005)
• Improves the intrinsic motivation of students. Based on a study of 16 students when the games are administered under a fixed time, children learn more and want to learn. (Hagbood & Ainsworth, 2011)
• A study conducted on 88 students showed that gaming improves students knowledge and memory. It also motivates the learner no matter the gender. (Papastergiou, 2009)
• Allows teachers and families to monitor the performance of the students (Wideman, Owston, et al, 2014)

Disadvantages of Gaming in Education

Although there are many advantages found in gaming. The disadvantages include :

• High Parental Involvement is needed when gaming is used for (Choo, Sim, Liau, Gentile, and Khoo, 2015)
• Requires additional time in the classroom to implement gaming in the classroom. (Badea, 2015)
• Resourcing the classrooms with educational games is often difficult and costly. (Badea, 2015)

Conclusion

Gaming in education is an area that is growing. The advantages and use found show that gaming is a useful tool that should be implemented in all classrooms. It offers a change of pace and engages the learner. Based on this literature review, additional work is needed to determine if gaming can be used as a primary source of learning in the classroom. Most of the use reviewed and tested showed that gaming is used as a supplement to education.

Gaming in adult education

According to Broadening the Audience for Gaming in Libraries (2008), the average age of gamers today is 33 years old and the largest group of gamers is middle-aged women. Gaming has an important role in the education of adults in the modern world (Marston, 2013). These games have seen and increase in interest from the baby boomers. Games for training in medical and first responder professions are on the rise.

Games are used as training tools to provide medical and first responder professionals with a challenging simulated environment, ideal for future surgical and emergency training. These simulations can be used to reduce error in medical procedures and emergency situations.

In contrast to traditional computer games, which take place in limited and well-defined settings, pervasive games erase the boundaries between spatial, temporal, and social expansion. Either way the adult learners must interact with the environment and with real objects to achieve certain goals.

Advantages of Gaming in Adult Education

According to Cain (2015) research on the effects of gaming in adult education is accumulating and promising. Gaming can be a powerful method of stimulating learning that provides tremendous opportunity for scholarship of teaching. Playing a computer word game can improve performance on subsequent test (Dennis, 2013).

• Games are used as training tools that provide medical professionals with a challenging simulated environment, ideal for future surgical training (Graafland et. al., 2012).
• Gaming can improve computer skills, problem solving skills, leadership development, and socialization among diverse groups (Broadening the Audience for Gaming in Libraries, 2008).
• When students use the games for learning environment, they are able to test their abilities in a non-threatening environment (Pompey, 2012).
• Gaming is interactive new media, and offers different environments of fantasy, interaction, competition, flow, and challenge, in a meaningful context (Hyungsung, 2010).

Disadvantages of Gaming in Adult Education

There are many advantages found in gaming, however some disadvantages include :

• Motivating adults to devote enough time to work with the digital material in the curriculum can be difficult (Plohn, 2014).
• Larger class sizes make organization of the game more difficult and increases time required for faculty to construct the game (Pompey, 2012).
• Physically adults in gaming have experienced body aches, headaches, eye sores, lack of sleep, lack of contact with family members, and failures to join university activities (Wichian, 2010).
• Hinders the academic growth or understanding of the course material when an exam is approaching (Plohn, 2014).

Conclusion

Gaming can be a worthwhile alternative teaching strategy to motivate child and adult learners, enhance communication between teacher and student, and increase retention of knowledge (Pompey, 2012). These games are just an additional type of learning and when done well can add great value to the learning process. Often times gaming is either fun or educational, rarely are the two incorporated into one gaming format. Therefore, future research should include development and design of games that are both fun and educational (Hyungsung, 2010).

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