As professors working in faculties of education for the past ten years researching digital gameplay and the design and development of games for education, the authors have often been asked whether digital games are good or bad for children. The discourse of good/bad is a slippery one and the authors believe that digital games, like television,…

This study compared the creative outcomes in student work resulting from two pedagogical approaches to creative problem solving activities. A secondary goal was to validate the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) as a means of assessing creativity. Linear models for problem solving and design processes serve as the current paradigm in classroom…

Few studies have documented the literacy activities in an after-school setting of affluent early adolescents assigned to remedial reading. This may be because these students are not considered to be at risk of academic failure. The out-of-school literacy activities of 3 sixth-grade students were examined in this qualitative research. Multiple data…

The concept of "intrinsic motivation" lies at the heart of the user engagement created by digital games. Yet despite this, educational software has traditionally attempted to harness games as extrinsic motivation by using them as a sugar coating for learning content. This article tests the concept of "intrinsic integration" as…

This study used technology-rich ethnography (TRE) to examine the use of game development in a high school computer programming class for the development of 21st century skills. High school students created games for elementary school students while obtaining formative feedback from their younger clients. Our experience suggests that in the…

This article discusses how prolonged participation and digital composition online intersect to forge material extensions of the physical body, or limbs beyond the skin. Based on postmodern theories of technology and the body, I argue that these limbs, while less tangible, merit serious consideration given their potential to engender physical…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their…

Over the past several years, educators have been exploring the potential of immersive interactive simulations, or video games for education, finding that games can support the development of disciplinary knowledge, systemic thinking, the production of complex multimodal digital artifacts, and participation in affinity spaces or sites of collective…

This article draws upon the cinematic, fictional portrayal of Avatars as a metaphor to show how young children are positioned in similar ways in relation to technology and nature. The authors discuss children as digital natives growing up in brave new virtual worlds, but also as vulnerable innocents who are specially attuned to--and in need…

The new technologies make the appearance of highly motivating and dynamic games with different levels of interaction possible, in which large amounts of data, information, procedures and values are included which are intimately bound with the social sciences. We set out from the hypothesis that videogames may become interesting resources for their…

The use of games in educational contexts has recently received growing attention; however, many teachers struggle with finding a right context to adopt games in the classroom. To strengthen teachers' beliefs about the educational value of games, this article explains the similarities and differences between new literacies and gaming literacy and…

This is an account of what a teacher educator learned from using the video game Neverwinter Nights with Drax, a high school student whose reading is like that of an elementary school student. Neverwinter Nights is a role-playing adventure game that requires reading print along with other meaningful signs such as sounds, artefacts, color, maps,…

Purpose: Problem/project-based-learning (PBL) approaches have traditionally been shown to be effective for learning within many professional programs that are directly related to the students' future career. The PBL approach has been adopted for over four decades in such fields as medicine and engineering and studies have demonstrated that…

Targeted as a highly desired skill for contemporary work and life, problem solving is central to game-based learning research. In this study, middle grade students achieved significant learning gains from gameplay interactions that required solving a science mystery based on microbiology content. Student trace data results indicated that effective…

"Drugs and the Brain: A Serious Game," a prototype museum exhibit, was designed to employ virtual models of the brain into a video game format. It was done to create a fun and engaging way of conveying knowledge and concepts about neuroscience, as well as the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain. The purpose of this study is to…