Resources that may help with your inquiry:
Richard Van Eck - "The Gaming of Education"
Van Eck (an instructional designer) talks about educational reform and using "disruptive technologies" to affect real change within the field of public education. He also talks about situated cognition and authentic learning. As with James Paul Gee, Van Eck points out how better games promote "systems thinking" where the player has to understand how many factors interact together in order to be successful. Constance Steinkuehler on Interest-Driven Learning (Big Thinkers Series - Edutopia - 2013)
This deals with how kids are engaged when playing a game and are motivated to learn. "Games are an easy context to see students care about the subject matter." |
"Games in Education: Serious Games" by Mary Ulicsak and Martha Wright (2010)
This lengthy report has a lot of very focused and pertinent things to say regarding the evaluation of serious games and provides a number of frameworks that should be examined and utilized. Specifically, pages 55-70 deal with assessment considerations and evaluation models. Excellent resource. Games As Guide by the Institute of Play
"A beginner’s resource on games for anyone involved in designing learning for youth. The Games As Guide is a resource for learning practitioners looking for a framework to understand how, when, why and where games might be used in support of learning goals." "Teaching with Games - Using commercial off-the-shelf computer games in formal education" by
Richard Sandford, Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer and Tim Rudd (2006) Another very comprehensive report done when there was less of an acceptance of the benefits of using videogames in the classroom. However, it has several case studies and many anecdotal comments from both teachers and students. Pages 50-53 highlight their findings and offer practical recommendations. "Digital Game-Based Learning: It's Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless…. " by Richard Van Eck (2006)
One of my favourite authors, Van Eck talks about finding balance between pedagogy/content and player engagement in DGBL. He also talks about using COTS games in the classroom. He explains how games need to be challenging in order to produce "cognitive disequilibrium" (check it out) that can be resolved by the player which would raise the engagement factor and keep the student playing. He also talks about evaluating games and thinking of how we can take what we need and then extend the game into the classroom. Again, a very useful article thinking about Assignment #3. "DGBL: Still Restless After All These Years" by Richard Van Eck (2015) The follow up that surveys the educational landscape 10 years later - what has changed and what hasn't? Very current and focuses on using GBL in the classroom.
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