Games an active tool for pedagogy: Experts

New Delhi, June 29: Games can be used as an active tool of pedagogy and for the larger societal good, experts said at an event hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Speaking at the event hosted by UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development), Zigor Hernandorena Juarros, senior project manager of Ubisoft, said education was a passive process, while learning was an active approach that becomes possible because of an intrinsic urge to learn.

Games make an individual feel important and help in exploring meanings. This ability of games to assign meanings is what makes them addictive, he said.

"Games can be used as an active tool of pedagogy and must be used for the larger societal good," the official said.

Anantha Duraiappah, director, UNESCO MGIEP, said after working psychologists, the games could be designed in a way that not only helps in learning, but also facilitates the firing of "Gandhi neurons" which instills competencies such as mindfulness, compassion, empathy and critical enquiry in individuals.

Gandhi neurons when fired in the brains of individuals make people empathetic and compassionate towards building peaceful and sustainable societies, he said.