The vast majority of board games available today are fun board games for adults. They may be fun for other age groups as well, but they fit in the adult category because adults have already lived through those younger years. It’s what qualifies them to be adults.

That said, it should be obvious that not all board games are fun for every adult. Fun board games for adults I’m associated with might not be the same fun board games for adults you have contact with. Among the dozens that I’ve played as an adult, there have been a small fraction that I haven’t particularly enjoyed. They are few and far between though.

When speaking of adult board games, I’m not going to devote time to those that have risque content. The adult-ness referred to here will only be a reference to an age group, not to games that are for “adults only” because they would be rated R if they were movies.

There are some traditional gateway games mentioned fairly often by those who make suggestions for board games for adults – and I think understandably so. Ticket to Ride and sometimes Carcassonne are most frequently brought up, and I agree that they should be as I would also recommend them, especially for adults who have not yet played anything remotely like a Euro board game before. Yes, that’s how these fun board games have earned the moniker of gateway games. Once people see how much fun these are, they tend to look for more fun board games that they haven’t played before.

Sequence

Sequence is a combination card and board game for 2-4 players. It is somewhat reminiscent of the classic Pente in that you need to get a row (or two, depending on the number of players) of five chips – vertically, horizontally, or diagonally – for a victory.

The board shows all the cards in the deck twice except the jacks, which are wild and have special properties. Play a card and place a “poker” chip of your color on a corresponding card space. Then don’t forget to draw a card to replenish your hand. If you don’t pick up a new card before the next player plays, you have to finish the game with less cards in your hand than you deserve, which can severely limit your options – especially if you forget more than once.

Sequence is a light-weight board game strategy-wise, so there’s plenty of time for socializing, if that’s what you like to do while playing with friends and family. Still, there is enough challenge to make you think a little before placing just any old card anywhere.

Wits & Wagers

As its name suggests, Wits & Wagers is a combination trivia and betting game that is great for parties. It plays quickly, especially if you enforce the time limit imposed by the hourglass. And it doesn’t really matter if you know the answers to the trivia questions; you can still win by intelligent wagering.

A question is read from one of the cards included. All answers are numeric. (This includes years.) Players write down their answers secretly within 30 seconds. When all are ready, answers are revealed simultaneously and are arranged on the betting table from low to high. When sorted properly, players then have 30 more seconds to place their “poker” chips on the answer they think is closest (without going over) to the correct one.

Winnings are paid only to the player or players who guessed the correct (closest) answer according to the odds shown on the betting table. The farther away from the median answer, the higher the odds.

Alhambra

Alhambra is another combination card and board game. Cards are money in four flavors usually identified by card color (though other cues can be used by those who have difficulty with colors) and come in various denominations. Normally, you pick up cards on your turn or discard some of your cards to pay for one of four tiles available on the board.

These tiles, most of which have dark-colored “walls”, are used to construct your own personal Alhambra. The tiles also come in different colors. Twice during the game and once at the end, players score points based on how many tiles of each color are in their Alhambra.

The challenges come in deciding when to purchase a tile, when to bide your time and collect more cash, where to place a purchased tile in your Alhambra (as there are restrictions), and which tile to go after.

When playing with three or four people, you can usually do a fair amount of planning ahead. With five or six people, chances are that the tile you were waiting to buy is going to be taken by someone else before your next turn.

With just a little more strategy involved than in Sequence, this board game will provide many hours of fun for most adults.

Outburst

Party games like Outburst and Balderdash are two more fun board games for adults that you might like to try. Balderdash is virtually the same as the generic “dictionary game”. Having the actual game just makes finding good words to stump people with a lot easier.

Outburst is similar to Family Feud in that you’re trying to come up with lists of items in a category as a team. The main and significant differences are that everyone on the team participates at the same time and that the items in the unknown list are not necessarily the ten most popular answers. Sometimes you’ll wonder why in the world they didn’t list an item that your team came up with, and other times you’ll be puzzled at where the creators came up with an item that none of you thought of.

Quiddler

Quiddler is a card game that works best with players of roughly equal vocabulary levels and spelling ability. You have a hand of three to ten cards (depending on which round it is) that have letters instead of numbers. After drawing a card, you try to spell one or more words using all the letters except one, which you will discard. When one player accomplishes this, the rest have one more chance to do the same, or to at least play as many cards as they can. Any cards left in your hand score negative points. Bonuses are awarded for the longest word and most words each round.

Nowadays, the popularity of online games is on the rise. Today, the advent of technology, especially the internet has allowed gamers to play traditional games on the latest devices, such as mobile phones and computers. Online games offer a lot of benefits, such as reduced stress, enhanced judgment, improved analytical skills, improved time-management skills, and a relaxing mind. Let’s get a deeper insight into some psychological benefits that you can enjoy by playing games on the internet.

Stress Relief

According to research studies, if you play online card games, you can enjoy a lot of psychological benefits. For example, regular players of these games reported a reduction in their stress levels. Aside from this, card games also help you relax and stay free of worries.

Skill Development

Playing card games with your family and friends can help you improve your analytical skills, concentration, and memory skills. The reason is that many games include strategy and money, which require attentiveness and concentration.

Actually, card games involve interpersonal and cognitive skills that can help you keep your brain active and fit.

Staying Engaged

Although online games rely on your short term memory, playing the games can improve your important skills as well as long term memory. If you follow the same routine always, you may suffer from boredom and mental stagnation. By playing games online, you can fill up this gap and keep yourself occupied.

Although there is a lack of social interaction and conversation, playing these games can help you improve your focus and concentration.

Interaction

Today we know that teamwork and communication are quite important in every field of business. Online games provide players with an incentive to communicate with each other during a game. And this improves their interaction with each other. This is good news for introverts and allows them to get in touch with each other through these simple games.

Entertainment

These games are a great source of convenience and entertainment. You can play these games anytime, anywhere and using any of the various internet-enabled devices such as mobile phones and tablet PCs. You can choose from a lot of games based on your needs and preferences.

Aside from this, online games involve competition and provide rewards and a lot of other benefits such as everyday jackpots, festive Bonanzas, and reward points. Therefore, there’s always something that you can look forward to. Often, online portals have practice games and video tutorials to assist beginners and newcomers. This way they can improve their skills.

This type of platform features user-friendly, customer support, encryption-based security and a lot of other features and benefits. Therefore online games are quite pleasurable.

In short, online games can help you to improve your problem solving and leadership skills. This way you are in a better position to deal with unexpected consequences. Besides, they can help you improve many of your skills such as concentration, alertness, intuitiveness, and observation. If you have a busy life, you can play these games to find relief from stress and develop your major social skills.

How has the use of technology impacted teaching and learning in the PK-16 classroom?When is comes to behaviorism technology has made it even easier. It used to be just like Pavlov’s dog, when the student does something right they get praised verbally or with a good grade versus a treat or a scratch behind the ear. Shaping behavior is important and we need to ensure there is a baseline. Technology almost guarantees that specific learning will take place as the objectives are determined by the teacher. Teachers can set specific goals and the students will know what they need to do to get there. Benjamin Bloom first came up with the idea that the student will succeed in learning the task if they are given a specific time to do it. Technology allows for you to more easily chunk lessons into specific times. Students will perform better, especially when they succeed and get the praise of the teacher. Although the stimulus is provided by the teacher, it will do no good if the students do not receive it equally. (Snowman & Biehler, 2003)
Other ways computers assist is that they offer the ability for repetition and feedback to the student. Teachers can also incorporate the appropriate enforcer’s to the lesson whether it is text, video or audio. The student does the task right they can get a smiley face , text telling them they are “Correct” or audio saying “Good Job!”. (Parkay & Stanford 2004)Social Learning is learning occurs when students learn from each other whether it be through modeling, imitation or observing within the social context. How can you do that with technology? Normally the students work on their own computer, but you can have them do a group project. When students do a project together they will observe how other groups are proceeding and imitate them if it is working well. The teacher usually also models what they are requiring the students to accomplish. Even when working individually the students will assist each other as one knows more than another.There are cognitive factors in social learning as well as behaviorism. There is a clear line between learning by observation and student imitation. The cognitive process maintains that the attention of the student is the critical factor in the learning process. The expectations and consequences that are reinforced will bring about similar future behavior. (Ornstien & Lasley 2000)
Cognitive learning is learning that occurs when a learner process information. This is similar to behaviorism but the student has more input to accomplish how they reach the planned outcome. The teacher can model a project but the student may have other information that will aid them in accomplishing the outcome. An example would be how I instructed my students how to set up an Excel spreadsheet. I had them set up a basic spreadsheet showing how much their parents spent on them in a month. This was relevant to the students and caught their interest. They went beyond the initial project and had boarders, colors, etc. on their spreadsheets. The students who did this were praised aloud and the other students wanted to know what they did and how. This tied in the social learning as well as the behaviorism theory (Didn’t even realize it at the time).When is comes to designing and developing lessons to incorporate technology the constructionist have the nod. Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Lab stated,”Constructionism holds that children learn best when they are in the active role of the designer and constructor.” When the student is actively involved they have the buy-in to the success of the project or assignment. The students will be more apt to complete and learn more from it when they have some ownership. The students in turn will share their new found information when doing the assignment with the other students allowing for the constructionist learning. This form of teaching eliminates the grade and goes more with a go, no go process. Teachers assess the students by the completion of the assignment or lack of completion. This is better because of students being able to play a greater role in the process and assessing their own progress.We teach ourselves how to learn. This is the constructivism theory on how we learn. With technology this couldn’t be truer. Most students have a basic understanding of the computer. They can download songs, play games and set up Myspace web page. What they can not do is build a spreadsheet or power point presentation. The teacher will give them a basic understanding but the students will learn from trial and error and construct their own learning.History of the computer use in the classroom started off slow. Saloman and Globerson (1987) suggested that underachievement in schools is because of the lower expectations on the part of the teachers, parents, and society. That was because the teachers themselves really hadn’t been exposed to the marvels of what a computer and the associated software could do for them. The Commodore 64, Apple II along with the Macintosh began their strong emergence in the early 80′s. Software programmers had a vision about the computer and how it could be used in the classroom. They developed software that teachers could use along with their instruction. Apple began teaching the teachers and Macintosh soon followed suit. This was the beginning of incorporating the use of computers in the classroom. (Jonassen 2000)Using computers in the classroom allows for all the learning theories to come to fruition. A computer allows for the cognitive process to bloom and brings about the social learning as well. When a student is given an assignment or project on the computer they will strive to complete it. The different things they learn they will share with other students especially if they think it is the bomb, cool or whack. On the flip side it can inhibit learning if the student is completely computer illiterate as frustration sets in as they cannot proceed as well as others. The computer also allows the teacher to develop lessons for all the multiple intelligences.With the advances computers and programs are taking on a daily basis, it is allowing for more interaction in the classroom(s). It is even allowing students from different schools to interact. Technology also allows for time to be better utilized, the outcomes of the objectives to be more easily determined and goals easy to implement and automate.