Category Archives: Research and papers
Use of Video Games in the Classroom
John Kirriemuir and Angela McFarlane (2003) wrote a survey-based conference paper on how “pure” computer and video games (that is, games that are not explicitly designed to be educational) tend to be used in classrooms. Kirriemuir and McFarlane report that games … Continue reading
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Beyond Edutainment: A Dissertation by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen
Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen of the IT-University of Copenhagen wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled Beyond Edutainment: Exploring the Educational Potential of Computer Games. The dissertation consists of five parts: Background. Grounding work towards an inclusive and solid framework for educational use of … Continue reading
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Game Authoring and Children’s Narrative Development
In a conference paper presented at the Interaction Design and Children Conference, Robertson and Good (2004) consider the feasibility and benefits of game authoring for children. Ten teenagers created their own stories in the medium of interactive 3D virtual reality … Continue reading
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Modding Games to Teach IT Skills
Video games have sometimes been touted as the gateway to increased computer literacy. Students can play games in the classroom, design their own games as a class activity (e.g. Kafai), or mod games — that is, to adapt an existing … Continue reading
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Kids and Game Design for Learning
Teachers realize that preparing lesson plans and the act of teaching itself causes the teacher to master the subject matter in an in-depth way. What happens when you let the students themselves become the teachers — that is, to let … Continue reading
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Video Games and the Future of Learning
In a recent paper by University of Wisconsin academics David Shaffer, Kurt Squire, Richard Halverson, and Jim Gee, the authors argue that learning is most powerful when it is personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. … Continue reading
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Videogames as Designed Experience (Squire)
Kurt Squire recently published in a recent issue of Educational Researcher (November 2006) a paper entitled From Content to Context: Videogames as Designed Experience. Squire points out, “As research and development initiatives proliferate, educational researchers might benefit by developing more … Continue reading
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Digital Game-Based Learning
We revisit Marc Prensky’s paper, Digital Game-Based Learning from the first issue of Computers in Entertainment (2003). Prensky discusses the importance of video and computer games for a new generation of learners. Prensky writes: “What attracts and glues kids to … Continue reading
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Kafai: Games-to-teach to Games-to-Learn
Yasmin Kafai in UCLA discusses a difference in philosophy between instructionists and constructionists regarding educational video games. Instructionists have typically tried to “embed” learning into games (using “games to teach”), while constructionists have students construct new knowledge while building or … Continue reading
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What is it about SimCity, Civilization, etc. that makes them useful for learning?
A good paper that investigates the recent enthusiasm for educational gaming is assistant professor (Wisconsin-Madison) Kurt Squire’s Cultural Framing of Video Games (2002) found in the journal Game Studies. This paper directs researchers, politicians, game developers and the public in … Continue reading
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