A review of applications of computer games in education and training

Scientists, engineers and educators are increasingly using environments enabled by advanced cyberinfrastructure tools for their research, formal and informal education and training, career development and life-long learning. For instance, academic institutions as well as private training and education companies have recently started to explore the potential of commercially available multi-player computer game engines for the development of virtual environments for instructional purposes. Most of these developments are still in their early stages and are focused mainly on investigating the suitability of interactive games for remote user interaction, content distribution and collaborative activities. Some of the ongoing projects have additional research objectives, such as the analysis of patterns of human behavior and the study of the collaboration between users and their interaction with virtual environments. A few other developments are aimed at utilizing computer game technologies as a platform for personnel training and educational laboratory simulations. This paper provides a review of the current state of computer game applications, with a special focus on education and training implementations.