Effective design of training-related games (games for training and/or assessment) requires synergy between the mechanisms for delivering instructional content and the mechanisms for learning game play and game functionality (Becker, 2006). The learning domain must be embedded as a core game mechanic: that is, the game cannot be advanced or won…

Kids aged five and under learn best through play. Instead of buying just any toy, look for toys or activities with things to teach: like the alphabet or names of different animals, and more. Children will play with their new toy and not even realize they are learning while they play. This article focuses on gift ideas for the holiday season, with…

Curricular schooling can benefit from the usage of educational computer games, but it is difficult to integrate them in the formal schooling system. Here, we investigate one possible approach to this integration, which capitalizes on using a micro-game that can be played with a teacher's guidance as a supplement after a traditional expository…

In the last decade, more and more games have been developed for handheld devices. Furthermore, the popularity of handheld devices and increase of wireless computing can be taken advantage of to provide students with more learning opportunities. Games also could bring promising benefits--specifically, motivating students to learn/play, sustaining…

In 30 years of teaching, the author never taught explicitly about coal. Coal appeared in his social studies curriculum solely as a labor issue, and coal was mostly invisible in his history classes. The world cannot afford this kind of curricular invisibility today. Forty percent of the main greenhouse gas produced in the United States, carbon…

This article reports on the 2008 ISAGA Summer School held in New Delhi (Gurgaon), India. This Summer School was hosted by the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management. Participants came from all over the world. This year's theme was "The Art and Science of Simulation and Gaming Design and Facilitation for Business and Management."

The playing of games has been a long standing tradition in physical education. Yet despite its history, the teaching of games within primary physical education lessons remains something of a weakness. This is most evident through a continued focus upon skill acquisition and a lack of fostering of a real "tactical understanding" of game…

When the author visits art museums, she always winds up in the children's section of the museum shop looking for appropriate books and games for her students. The games always intrigue her; however, they are rarely designed for more than two to four players, and the cost is often prohibitive. In light of this frustrating situation, she has spent a…

This book focuses on the interplay between pedagogy and technology, and their fusion for the advancement of smart learning environments. It discusses various components of this interplay, including learning and assessment paradigms, social factors and policies, emerging technologies, innovative application of mature technologies, transformation of…

This study, based on Taiwanese geographical concepts, develops a multi-touch interactive jigsaw puzzle (MIJP) to assist primary school students in solving geographical puzzles. The MIJP, which has multi-touch operating characteristics and provides two kinds of scaffolding tools, each with a different level of difficulty, can assist students in…

The objective of this study was to identify determinants of professionals' intention to use the new board game SeCZ TaLK to facilitate sexual health discussions with young people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, and to gauge whether intention led to actual use. A cross-sectional web-based survey of 336 professionals before they…

Active learning, including in-class debates, is used in social science classrooms as a means of improving meaning and increasing understanding of complex materials. However, in-class debates do not fully satisfy all aspects of experiential learning because students do not get to experience the results of multifaceted concepts, such as strategic…

This paper compares the results of two surveys conducted between July 2009 and January 2010 with 45 subject matter experts (SMEs) and 41 game experts in the UK. The surveys examine the attitudes and attitude differences of the participants towards teachers who use games in the classroom and studios that produced educational games. The findings…

Learning through play is currently an effective and attractive educational strategy. However, are all educational video games (EVG) successful and do they always keep the player motivated? Here, the authors emphasize that the success of an EVG will be more achievable if the game quality is measured, and suggest the use of playability property as a…

Brain Bingo is a tutorial activity for helping undergraduate psychology students learn complex physiological terms. In two experiments, the authors tested pretest and posttest knowledge, and in Experiment 2, the authors tested retention after 5 weeks. In Experiment 1 (n = 41), the experimental group (Brain Bingo) recalled more terms than the…