Instructional Technology Group

Digital learning with games

Eric Gordon, Assistant Professor in Visual and Media Arts, says gaming is both “an influence on, and a method of, education. It's about integrating things like role-play, which many instructors already use as a teaching device.”  Gaming adds “an element of play to the serious matter of learning. If we can do that, then we're engaging our students better.”

James Paul Gee, Professor at the University of Arizona, says computer games can teach students to work collaboratively and become better problem solvers. See a video of Prof. Gee

Katie Salens, Associate Professor and research faculty at the Parsons School of Design, says that games have always been developmentally significant. Digital games teach collaboration, team building and problem solving in complex spaces.See a video of Prof. Salens

Ian Bogost, Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says games are vehicles of persuasion, instruction, and activism. They allow students to build models of relationships between the parts of a system that let them see what happens when one variable or behavior is changed. See a video of Prof. Bogost . Listen to him interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation (17min)

Advocates of educational gaming say effective use of digital games requires thoughtful attention to teaching and learning issues. Students need to be prepared before they play the game to get the most out of it. After playing, students need help in understanding and processing what they experienced.

To see some examples of games developed based on the teaching and learning principles and goals discussed above:

• Edutopia: Serious Games Examples
• Gambit: Singapore-MIT Game Lab
• Institute of Play: "Game Bucket"

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