Use of Games in Education: GeoGuessr in Geography Course

Year 2017, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 1 - 6, 31.12.2017

Mustafa Girgin

Abstract

Almost all of the studies which are about the learning effects of the games emphasize as if, they have all agreed
on all hands that the games contribute to the child’s spiritual and educational development. No matter at which
age group it is, to claim that game derived gains couldn’t be gained by no other way, wouldn’t be exaggeration
indeed. The ones who spend their time playing games are known to be ahead from the ones who don’t in a lot of
areas like 3D thinking, reasoning and having responsibilities aside from having fun. When units and gains observed
in geography courses, it is seen that there is no reference to gaming. In fact, gaming affects all students’ learning
performance of all ages positively. The geography game “Geography Prediction” spread on the internet with the
slogan “Discover the World” named GeoGuessr, takes its players to many places from Australia’s play the game
in which one has to figure out a location based on five randomly given pictures by using various geographical
indicators, players put a mark on the World map and gain point according to the proximity of their mark to the
location. It is looked for an answer to the question of “Which geographical indicators used by the students in this
GeoGuessr exercise?”. It was asked to play this game from a group of 140 first grade Mugla Sıtkı Kocman
University, Faculty of Education students. They all have encountered the game for the first time and have never
played before, they are asked 6 questions like how many times they have played the game, the reason they got low
points, the highest point they got, which indicators they have used and the place of the game in teaching geography.
All of the participants shared the highest point they got on their own blog and made evaluations about the game.

Keywords

educational games, GeoGuessr, Geography Course

References

• Alexiev, T. (2016). Educational geosptail web platforms and resources for geography and economics teaching. Bulgarian Academy Of Sciences 1–2 • Problems of Geography. 89-102. AU (2017). AU Game Lab. Retrieved from http://www.american.edu/gamelab/ on 05.9.2017. Backlund, P., Hendrix, M. (2013). Educational games - Are they worth the effort? A literature survey of the effectiveness of serious games.Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS- GAMES), 2013 5th International Conference on http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6624226/ on 25.9.2017. Brown, S. (2008). Oyun sadece eğlenceden başka bir şey değildir. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital on 10.10.2017. Buczkowski, A. (2015).Top 10 Google Maps games of all times. Retrieved from http://geoawesomeness.com/10-top-google-maps-games-of-all-times/ on 05.9.2017. Figlerowicz, M. (2015). GeoGuessr's Digital Pilgrimages. Journal Room One Thousand, 3(3). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/content/gt5gg4g7v8/gt5gg4g7v8.pdf on 10.10.2017. Fitzpatrick, C. (2007). Teaching geography with computers. Journal of Geography 92, 156-159. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221349308979644 Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games+ good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy. New York: Peter Lang. GeoGuessr (2017). Retrieved from https://geoguessr.com/maps/official on 05.9.2017 Gersmehl, P. (2014). Teaching geography. (Third Edition). New York London: Guilford Publications. Google oyunları. (2017). Top 10 google maps games of all times. Retrieved from http://geoawesomeness.com/10-top-google-maps-games-of-all-times/ on 05.9.2017 Lambert, D., Morgan, J. (2010). Teaching geography 11-18: A conceptual approach. Berkshire: Open Universty. Metha, S., North, C., Luther, K. (2016). An exploratory study of human performance in image geolocation tasks. Department of Computer Science and Center for Human–Computer Interaction Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. MIT (2017). Exploring the potential of play. Retrieved from http://gamelab.mit.edu/ on 05.9.2017. Pokojski, W. (2017). Komputerowe gry dydaktyczne w geografii. Edukacja Biologiczna I Środowiskowa. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wojciech_Pokojski2/publication/318987962_Komput erowe_gry_dydaktyczne_w_geografii/links/5989dd86a6fdcc75626386ae/Komputerowe-gry- dydaktyczne-w-geografii.pdf on 05.9.2017. Russell, B. (2014). Eğitim üzerine düşünceler. İstanbul: Cem. SGI (2017). EduGameLab. Retrieved from http://www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk/applied-research/EduGameLab.aspx on 25.9.2017. Takahashi, D. (2016). Science game lab to be a central hub for scientists and gamers. Retrieved from https://venturebeat.com/2016/06/21/science-game-lab-to-be-a-central-hub-for-scientists-and-gamers/ on 25.9.2017 Walford, R. (1969). Games in geography. London: Longman Group Ltd. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED064198 on 25.9.2017.