Keep learning outside of the classroom? Serious Games can make it!

According to Wikipedia, a serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. As a teacher, I can use them to educate students.

I have chosen Budget Hero and played twice. At first glance, the game has a lot of information so that students can learn various things after playing the game. The target learner should be adults and the level should be advanced since vocabularies are very difficult and general knowledge about economy, society and national security is needed.

First of all, in the classroom, we are going to learn new vocabularies and discuss general concept about a national budget. Also, I can use walkthrough as a demonstration to make sure that every student understands what they are going to do. The objective of the lesson is that students will be able to speak and write not only target words such as investment, defense, and deficit but also relevant expressions. Then, they need to make a budget considering pros and cons of the policies. After the lesson, students are able to speak and write their plans in English. In the lesson,  their plans can be presented in a group and students can choose the best one. Also students write an essay about the federal budget. During the presentation or writing an essay, I can assess whether the learning objectives had been met.

Although the lesson can be a little demanding, students can learn a lot of things from it. Most important thing is that they are given  much chance to think about the topic and speak or write what they have learned, which gives them autonomy!