Educational computer games in geography

At the time of functioning of the information society, it is the duty of the teacher to use various techniques supporting the learning process in the classroom. The development of the Internet and computer techniques has contributed to many ingenious applications and programmes dedicated to conveying information and acquiring knowledge. A teacher willing to enrich his or her toolkit and to make his or her students’ learning more diverse and reaching for such tools should be (Lange, Osiecki, 2014). As results from the report of the Education Development Centre, as many as 76% of young web users use the Internet to do their homework and seek information. Contemporary students often start looking for information by means of the computer, so it is worthwhile to show students online resources that will facilitate studying geography and make it more diversified. In the opinion of Pliszka (1997), this task should be fulfilled above all by the teacher and the application of a computer programme for teaching purposes should bring the expected result in the form of built-up or consolidation of knowledge, for the “computer-assisted education” defined by J.M. Morbitzer (2007) to be common end efficient also in the area of teaching geography and nature. The use of computer games may have a very positive impact on motivation for learning, which is testified to by studies conducted in Greece (Papastergiou, 2009) among secondary school students; some of the students used games in the educational process, while others studied in the traditional way. Those who used games obtained better results at the test administered at the end of the experiment. Similar studies conducted in Turkey on a group of primary school students showed better motivation for studying and, consequently, better outcomes obtained by students who used a computer game concerning continents and countries of the world with respect to the other students (Hakan et al. 2009). Similar conclusions were drawn during an experimental study carried out in Canada (Lotherington, Ronda, 2009)..