Abstract
Can we learn socially and academically valuable concepts and skills from video games? How can we best teach the "gamer generation"? This accessible book describes how educators and curriculum designers can harness the participatory nature of digital media and play. The author presents a comprehensive model of games and learning that integrates analyses of games, game culture, and educational game design. Building on more than 10 years of research, Kurt Squire tells the story of the emerging field of immersive, digitally mediated learning environments (or games) and outlines the future of education. Featuring engaging stories from the author's experiences as a game researcher, this book:Explores the intersections between commercial game design for entertainment and design-based research conducted in schoolsHighlights the importance of social interactions around games at home, at school, and in online communitiesEngages readers with a user-friendly presentation, including personal narratives, sidebars, screenshots, and annotations.Offers a forward-looking vision of the changing audience for educational video games.Kurt Squire is an associate professor of Educational Communications and Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and associate co-director for educational research and development at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
Highlights
Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age by Kurt Squire Teachers College Press (New York), 2011, 312 pages, ISBN 978-0-8077-5198-5
Prefacing each chapter's case studies is a set of questions about learning, game design, participation or teaching with games to be answered within the chapter
Squire's passion for gaming arose as a teenager in the 80s when home computers heralded the advent of game playing beyond simple arcade games. He taught at primary and Montessori schools before his interest in gaming and education led him to completing a doctorate in 2004 supervised by Sasha Barab of Indiana University's Quest Atlantis fame (Quest Atlantis, n.d.). He has researched topics around games designed for learning with games and literacy advocate James Paul Gee (Gee, 2007b); participatory cultures proponent Henry Jenkins (2009) and epistemic games researcher David Williamson Shaffer (2006)
Summary
Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age by Kurt Squire (forward by James Paul Gee; featuring contributions by Henry Jenkins) Teachers College Press (New York), 2011, 312 pages, ISBN 978-0-8077-5198-5. Squire correctly asserts that it is both useful and productive to study video games, because people are already learning academic content on their own in games; good games are deeply engaging and their design principles offer us insights into how to incorporate that engagement into our own teaching; and games are representative of a cultural shift from consumption to one of production and collaboration with and for communities. This latter idea resonated strongly with my own research into massively multiple online games-based learning communities and what and how adults are learning together. Is that vision compelling, convincing, and attainable? Again, mostly yes, but I have some reservations, as will be revealed below when considering the major themes Squire covers
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