Many educators may find computer games which are already common among students in this digital age as an educational promise to harness learning in the classroom but an expert said there is much to learn about it. Sylvia Martinez, president of US-based Generation of Youth and Educators Succeeding, who is one of the resource persons of the second ICT Education Conference, stressed this in her talk to explain how educators can discern the difference between hype and promise in considering computer games as an effective tool for learning in the classroom. According to studies, although there are still objections to games from educators who advocate for project-based learning, many teachers view school-age students' attraction to video and computer games with envy and hope that any educational experience that occurs on a computer will somehow capture the magic. 'There is much to learn from exploring the educational promise of games in the classroom,' said Martinez.
In her talk that dwelt on the subject 'Myths, Realities and Promise,' Martinez, however, said students can learn if they programme their own games to make them understand better a particular subject they are discussing in the classroom. She said teaching game design that would suit the specific need of a subject discussed in the classroom is not that really hard since there are many teachers in many parts of the world who are doing it citing those in UK and Australia where they joined networks and get friendly supports to develop a computer game design for learning. 'Game design involve the kind of problem-solving that make math come alive,' said Martinez. There are Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) games that are professionally designed and offers compelling game play but Martinez said these are not necessarily accurate, not connected to curriculum subjects and time consuming.
