Ubisoft’s Assassin Creed Discovery Tour is being used in the classroom to help struggling students

An Australian teacher has staged an incredible turn-around in the fortunes of a group of struggling students by using popular video games such as Assassin’s Creed.

Ben Lawless, who teaches history and geography at Aitken College in Melbourne, told Daily Mail Australia that using video games has improves results for all students but especially those with low literacy levels.

‘I would say that out of my bottom third, I reckon that if I use textbooks only, I’d get 10 per cent of them, now I get 90 per cent,’ Mr Lawless said.

‘It’s a struggle for kids with low literacy skills to learn from text books, but when they’re basically doing something first-person, watching characters praying to statues, listening to other languages and looking at their clothes up close, they become engrossed.’

But it’s not just the struggling students who benefit, Mr Lawless says.

‘All my students do really well on assessments. Everyone is more engaged.’

Ben Lawless (pictured) has staged an incredible turn-around in the fortunes of struggling students by using video games like Assassin’s Creed to teach history and geography

Mr Lawless said students get ‘engrossed’ in seeing what people from thousands of years ago wore and spoke up close in video games

Mr Lawless collaborated with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the Victorian government to develop over 100 lesson plans for Year 7 and 8 students using games.

He said even after the lessons and assessments finish many students start reading graphic novels and young teen fiction set in the historical periods they’ve studied because they are so interested.

Mr Lawless collaborated with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the Victorian government to develop over 100 lesson plans for Year 7 and 8 students using games.

A lifelong video game fan, Mr Lawless, now 44, has been playing since he was 10.

‘Ever since 10 since my mum bought us an old Atari,’ he said.

Most of classes improve in a compulsory assessment area called ‘historical empathy’ – which shows students understand what life was like for people in the past, rather than just guessing how they felt.

The high quality graphics also help students understand life in the past better too.

‘When you get them to ride around on horse or on boat, they understand how geography affected trade.’ 

How does Mr Lawless respond to criticism from parents that children should be reading books not playing games in class, especially games about assassins who kill people?

Students use more educational ‘discovery tour’ version that hat let visitors freely roam Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the Viking Age

Students don’t see assassins killing anyone in the G-rated ‘discovery tour’ 

‘A lot of adults have moral panic about kids using video because they presume they are violent and it’s not always the case. 

‘There’s a lot of ignorance in adult world about what video games are like these days.

‘It started off as a game where people sneak up on others and stab them but it’s evolved into a role-playing game that is ridiculously historically accurate. 

‘I remember reading the artwork budget alone for Assassins Creed was over $100million and that there were over 50 historians involved.’

But he doesn’t use the uncensored version of the action-adventure game, which was made into a movie in 2016. 

Instead students use more educational ‘discovery tour’ version that hat let visitors freely roam Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the Viking Age. 

 Assassins Creed was developed with artwork budgets of over $100million and used a team of 50 historians

Mr Lawless said because children receive information on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram stories teachers have to adapt

They learn by walking around and noting what they see before doing assessments at the end of each ‘tour’. 

Mr Lawless believes it’s a no-brainer to use the most up-to-date methods and tools as possible because of how kids live outside of class. 

‘Most parents were educated in a different world, so their schooling looked different to what’s needed today,’ he said.

‘The media diet of students has changed and what goes into their education needs to change with it.’

Mr Lawless said because children receive information on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram stories teachers have to adapt.

Students will get too easily bored if only given information in textbooks, switch off and perform poorly.

But the value of games in lessons isn’t just about teachers adapting to shorter attention spans, he claims.

‘If you engage students in a mindset of play it’s more beneficial for their education.’

‘They are more likely to take risks and accept negative feedback,’ he said.

Mr Lawless points to kids learning how to play a difficult stage in a video game: they may ‘die’ repeatedly before  mastering the stage. 

Students will get too easily bored if only given information in textbooks, switch off and perform poorly

But the value of games in lessons isn’t just about teachers adapting to shorter attention spans

Because the same principle can work with learning how to master subjects, Mr Lawless has actually designed tests in video game formats.

‘A teacher giving a student negative feedback can be quite confronting, but if the feedback is given by the game they use that to improve. 

‘Play mindset makes people more curious too.’