Games and Learning – Market Analysis.
Games have been a very genuine part of learning for some time. In past years, games have been minimally included in subjects such as the puzzle in math, crosswords in language, discovery games in science, and even in PE classes. In recent years, and with the massive technology production that we are witnessing through the implementation of technology in schools and within each classroom, schools have harnessed this technology boom and its products as tools to teach.
Games have not been recently invented, but rather they have been re-introduced to us in a much prettier form and a greater enhanced shape. According to http://www.gamesandlearning.org, the gaming industry is a big and vast $65 billion-dollar-a-year industry. Today it is not just a stand-a-side small industry. Behind this industry are researchers and inventors and innovators that work day and night to create the best game possible for its audiences. In fact, the gaming industry today produces games for multiple audiences, in fact, it is very popular among the movie industry in Hollywood and much more. The gaming industry continues to develop because of the popularity of the game itself and the massive attention that schools and educators of today give this industry. That’s the reason of the existence of such sources which are looking deeply and with details on what is going on this industry such as gamingandlearning.org. This website and its market analysis provide the public with lots of information such as Market snapshots; which are reports about the potential new games in the market, as well as translation of research, which basically highlights the report and it’s important information that often is not explicit in the academic research. It also provides explainers: these reports explain the jargon and the lingo that is used this industry. Commentaries are also available, which is tracking of the thinking of the inventors, and leaders of this industry. In sum, this organization’s aim is to increase the amount information available to the users and the creators of gaming in a learning setting, therefore increasing the understanding using the research in order to highlight the benefits of games among children and young adults.
source: http://www.gamesandlearning.org/about/
Some of the market analysis provided by this organization are very beneficial to the education sector such as market analysis on games in categories such as the 21st-century skills, assessment, behaviours, common core, coding, game design, game marketing, literacy, media, and much more. (http://www.gamesandlearning.org/about/).
These categories are explained in detail on the website under the games development tab. A great benefit is it can show the navigator all the games that are tagged with a specific category such as all the games that are connected to 21st-century learning or all the games of coding. In addition, the website offers the latest research on all of these categories as well, but the most important tab on this website, which could be very beneficial to each teacher, is the tab underneath each category that shows and explains the use of each game within the classroom.
This is the most important factor is the how the knowledge of connecting the game to the curriculum and its use within the classroom setting. So, if a teacher is looking to implement games to enhance learning in a classroom, he can just see what are the best games in the market for their classroom. In addition, the website offers funding opportunities for new ideas in gaming, to inventors and entrepreneurs who need someone to adapt their ideas to benefit the education sector by offering them a great database on organizations that might fund their ideas to become a reality.
Finally, the website also offers community communication platforms to exchange ideas, tweets, and news feeds to keep all of the industry and its stakeholders connected.
