Computer game

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Links

Games Readings Good literature list from the Open Conent Wiki.

Why games in education ?

• Games are rather engaging and learners do things.

• Learning can, and should, be hard fun (Quinn, 2005:22). “We are not, cannot be, about designing content. A fundamental perspective I want you to take away is that we are designing experiences. If nothing else, start thinking not about creating content but about designing learner environments and architecting experiences. It has become clear to me that this is a fundamental point. You have to start thinking about putting the learners into a context where they have to make decisions, understand why those decisions are important, want to make those decisions, and know that there are consequences of those decisions” (Quinn, 2005: 10).

Marc Prensky (2001:05-1) gives twelve reasons why he believes that computer and videogames are potentially the most engaging pastime in the history of mankind:

1. Games are a form of fun. That gives us enjoyment and pleasure.
2. Games are form of play. That gives us intense and passionate #
3. Games have rules. That gives us structure.
4. Games have goals. That gives us motivation.
5. Games are interactive. That gives us doing.
6. Games are adaptive. That gives us flow.
7. Games have outcomes and feedback. That gives us learning.
8. Games have win states. That gives us ego gratification.
9. Games have conflict/competition/challenge/opposition. That gives us #
10. Games have problem solving. That sparks our creativity.
11. Games have interaction. That gives us social groups.
12. Games have representation and story. That gives us emotion.

and he adds to that that “Nothing else provides all of these. Books and movies, which perhaps come closest, have many of these characteristics, but they are not interactive, and are typically experienced alone. Games, at their best, are highly social, highly interactive experiences.” (Prensky (2001:05-2).

References

• Crawford, Chris (1997). The Art of Computer Game Design, Washington State University. (This is an on-line book of text written much earlier).

• Quinn, Clark N. (2005). Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games, Peiffer ISBN 0787975222. (Chapter 1 is available for free (PDF)

• Robertson, J., & Good, J. (2005). Story creation in virtual game worlds (PDF). Communications of the ACM, 48(1), 61-65. PDF

• Prensky, Marc (2001). Chapter 5: Fun, Play and Games: What Makes Games Engaging. In Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. PDF

• Virvou, M., Katsionis, G., & Manos, K. (2005). Combining software games with education: Evaluation of its educational effectiveness (PDF). Educational Technology & Society, 8(2), 54-65. PDF