Using Text Adventures in Education

Benefits of using computer games to teach students

A recent study by FutureLab indicates the benefits of using computer games in teaching:

In particular, the act of getting students to actually make their own games is "seen to be motivational, to raise self-esteem and perceptions of self, and to contribute to learner voice... by making computer games, students are able to learn computer programming skills and associated skills in mathematics. Making games... makes mathematics and computer programming an active and subjective, authentic rather than decontextualised, process of investigation and knowledge construction." [source: FutureLab "Games and Learning" handbook]

Why text adventures?

Text adventures are an ideal form of computer game to be used in education:

With Quest, you can easily create custom content for your class, even if you have no programming experience. A full tutorial is included so you, or your class, can start creating games quickly and easily.

Teaching English

Getting students to create their own text games gets them to think in detail about characters and settings. It also gets them to think about narrative in a novel way, because each story can have multiple narratives depending on what the player decides to do. And, because the output will be actively interacted with (perhaps by fellow students), it encourages students to carefully consider the audience for their writing.

Teaching ICT / Information Technology

Creating a game gives students an introduction to desigining an information system and considering other users. Other students can play their games and this can be used as a basis for providing feedback.

You can use Quest to teach basic ICT concepts, such as input and output, and it can also be used as a basis for more advanced topics such in computer programming. The included tutorial gives an introduction to variables, subroutines (procedures), functions and concepts in object-oriented programming.

Teaching History and Geography

Why not use Quest to create an interactive world for your students to explore? Being text-based means you can create an interactive environment quickly and easily, as you don't need to create large amounts of graphics. However, you can include pictures and sounds where you need them - to show a picture of an object when the player looks at it, for example.

Find out more

Why not download a trial version today, and please contact us if you have any questions.