characteristics of a good educational game and evaluatıon of performance of a game in terms of these characteristicsEducation and game is two closely related subjects when we look at them carefully. They have some common aspects. If we see the life as a game and see the world as a stage, we can say that, an education environment is a small sample of this game place. As a result of this fact, for the sake of making school environment more related to the “life game” we can combine these to discipline, game and education, by creating educational games. A good educational game should have some applicable characteristics. We can examine these characteristics under two titles, socially and technically. First of all, an educational game should provide social relations among students. I mean that, the students who play the game should feel that they are in socially activated environment. Let me make it clearer. While students are playing the game, they should have the chance to “communicate” each other. They should be able to speak and listen when it is needed. It is an important manner for also real life. The game should provide the students for “group working”. They should work together throughout an aim and take responsibilities while the process is going on. They should make a good mission sharing and try to give “equal chances” to the players for the sake of showing their works. I mean the players should be equally activated and there shouldn’t be students who just watch their friends while they are playing game.Beside these social characteristics of an educational game, some technical features are also important in terms of the playability of the game. I can count some technical characteristic as; announcement of aim; determination of the content; and rules. Firstly, the game should serve for an aim. When we are informed about the aim of the game, we can feel more ready for the process which will come following step. I should be informed about what will happen after I played the game. At some games, this can be hidden not to lose the specialty of the game. But if there is not such a condition, it should be announced. Secondly, the content of the educational game should be chosen well. If the players do not get anything, in the meaning of education, after playing the game, it is meaningless to take students’ time. For example we should say that, by playing this game students can easily distinguish the differences between sinus and cosines functions. The content should be reliable. Finally an educational game should have some rules which make the game applicable without an outside management like teacher. When we start to play the game, “it should go on own by own”. This feature can be ensured by using some rules such as time limitation, player limitation or place limitation. It is up to the designer of the game. Also the game should be far away from any kind of misconception. The players should be warned about the misconceptions. We should be careful about this subject.As a conclusion, an educational game should provide these points;- communication- group working- good mission sharing (equal chances for each player) - announcement of aim before the game- determination of a usable content - rules for making it automatic- caring misconceptions The game I want to criticize is about the resistance in electricity. Let me remind the game. The place we played the game was a chess table on the ground. There were 5 groups and two of them in the role of resistance and three others in the role of electricity current. I got also chance to play this game and as a result I have more information about the features of the game. At first place, the game gave chance for communication among the players. While we were playing the game, we needed to talk about what we will do when we will face with a resistance and while doing this we listened to ideas of our group members and said our owns. In terms of communication, it can be said well, but the other groups who are in resistance role can’t have the chance to communicate as much as the other group.The essential characteristics of the group working were lost at this game. We don’t have any responsibility other than walking around the rectangle. As individuals, we can’t externalize our skills for the sake of common goal. Similarly, the distribution of the responsibilities is not equal. I mean that, while our group (group in the role of current) is actively involved to the game, the other group just obeyed the directions of the creators of the game and they just wait for our passing.The designer of the game, at the same time they led us, announced the aim of the game. We knew what we get after the game. We have been going to learn how the value current was affected by the distribution of the resistance and as a result we did.The worst side of the game was that, the game can’t be playable without some leader. Always some others should give directions for the durability of the game. We can’t go on playing if some others didn’t help us and say what we did.The game may cause also some misconceptions. For example, while the current moves on the cable, there is no matter moves on the cable. Only small atomic collisions carry the energy. However while we were playing the game, on the role of currents, we moved on the cable and the designers of the game didn’t warn us about this misconception.
