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CONTENTS
01 Introduction: why games and learning?
Current context
Defining games
Defining games as learning resources
02 Learning from playing games outside school
Games as ideal learning environments
What is learned from playing games
Social aspects of games that support learning
Problems and criticisms
03 Using games inside school
Existing approaches to the use of games in school
Characteristics for selecting games for play in school
Case studies
04 Games designed for learning
Case studies
05 Young people designing games for learning
Case studies
06 Annotated reading list
07 Recommendations
08 Key features tables
01 Introduction: why games and learning?
Current context
Across the world, educators are increasingly becoming interested in the potential role of computer and video games to support young people's learning. In academic research circles video games are now a popular subject of study not only in computer science departments but in media, communication and cultural studies, literacy studies, and education departments too.
To date, the majority of the research on young people's use of computer games has focused on informal, out-of-school contexts - on what is being learned outside of the school gates. Studies in this area also tend to concentrate on mainstream computer and video games available from high street stores and their potential application to the field of learning, rather than on professional and vocational simulations or on specifically educational titles. In this handbook, too, we examine how the use of mainstream games outside of formal educational contexts can support learning processes.
Recent studies, however, have also begun to ask how games might be used or adapted for use in schools. This handbook reports on some of the latest developments in the design of bespoke educational games. Such games are designed to be as rich and dynamic as their mainstream 'cousins', but are intended for particular formal educational outcomes. It also asks whether and how schooling should be adapted to accommodate the use of games1.
Defining games
Defining a 'game' is complex and subject to multiple contesting theoretical and practical arguments. As long ago as 1971, EM Avedon and Brian Sutton Smith2 pointed out that anybody who has ideas about games in part defines them, whether it be social scientists defining them through their psychological and social functions, anthropologists defining them according to their historical origins, or businessmen in terms of their usages. Currently, computer games researchers can still be found debating the definition of games; the entry of educators into the fray often complicates matters further.
For the sake of simplicity, this handbook uses the terms 'computer games' and 'video games' to designate digital applications that can be controlled by individuals or groups of players using a PC or a console such as a Playstation or Xbox machine. This is a basic definition, but other sources are available to guide anybody more interested in this area3. It does attempt more carefully, though, to define what it is about games that lend them credibility as tools and resources to support learning.
Defining games as learning resources
Recent interest in games and learning stems from some complex debates about the very role and practices of education in a new century, rather than just from a simple belief that young people find games motivating and fun and, therefore, that they should be exploited in educational contexts. These debates suggest, among other things, that computer games are designed 'to be learned' and therefore provide models of good learning practices, and that by playing games young people are developing practical competencies and social practices that are equipping them for 21st century workplaces, communication, and social lives.
This handbook is intended to report the main developments in this field, and to provide a number of practical examples of computer games being used in educational contexts. These vary from bespoke educational computer games, to the use of mainstream computer games in formal classrooms, to the actual creation of computer games by school children. It provides practical recommendations for teachers interested in this area to begin implementing games-based activities in their schools, and for games developers aiming to design the titles that will be instrumental in learners' education in future years.
1References to research articles, books and relevant project websites are included in these footnotes throughout this handbook. However, a reading list is provided at the end of the handbook which will point the non-specialist reader towards the most accessible and easily available texts in this area.
2Brian Sutton Smith and EM Avedon (1971). The Study of Games. New York: Wiley.
3Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's recent book Rules of Play (2005) goes a long way to unpacking this debate. See reading list.
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