Game-Based Learning and Gamified Learning
Metagame Book Club: Game Studies. "Game-Based Learning and Gamified Learning" by Sherry Jones. Published Nov. 18, 2014. Last Updated: Jan. 15, 2019.
**This page was first published on the Metagame Book Club.
Welcome to Week 3 of Track 1: Game Studies!
Welcome to the third and final week of Reading Track 1: Game Studies for the Fall 2014 edition of the Metagame Book Club! In the first two weeks of this track, we discussed the ideological messages that are consciously, and more often than not, unconsciously, expressed through games. I assigned a variety of academic articles that critique the ways games frame gender roles, cultural attitudes, political policies, war events, ethical or moral dilemmas, and historical realities. The articles demonstrate that games, whether analog or digital, serve as framing devices for ideologies. I hope that through our G+ Community discussions, I have made the case that games are complex texts that should be studied through critical theories and approaches.
For this week, I would like to direct our focus to gaming in education, by exploring current, scholarly research on game-based learning (GBL) and gamified learning approaches in K-12 and college settings. Below I have provided a wide range of texts for your selection. You will find that some articles lay out methods for implementing GBL in math, science, medicine, drama, artificial intelligence, ethics, media education, and more disciplines, while other articles explore the positive and negative effects of the GBL approach. Indeed, there will be separate articles on the applications and problems with gamification in education, otherwise known as gamified learning.
While reading, please keep in mind that game-based learning (GBL) and gamified learning are two different approaches to applying gaming to education. The term, gamification, has a complex and extensive history in the business world, often applied for the purpose of consumer behavior modification. In the context of education, it is rebranded as "gamified learning," which does not refer to the integration of analog or digital games in teaching practices (as practiced in the GBL approach). Many websites continue to conflate the two approaches, and thus causing confusion to educators who wish to invigorate their teaching with gaming. I myself have written extensively about this problem, and published this 2013 presentation titled: "Gamification vs. Game-Based Learning: Theories, Methods, and Controversies." I look forward to hearing your comments regarding GBL or gamified learning during this week's discussions. If you already have implemented either approaches, please do share with us your methods and experience with using either approaches in the classroom.
Below are several articles that I have organized under specific sections/themes. Please feel free to choose which texts you would like to read from each section/theme to learn about the issues at hand (please know that you are not expected to read all of the texts!). We will have a live discussion on some of the issues and theories mentioned in the reading materials at the #Metagame Book Club G+ Community website on November 23th, 5pm MT (use this nifty time zone converter to figure out when the live discussion will occur in your time zone). Join our G+ Community to receive the latest notifications of upcoming webinars and discussions.
Enjoy the intriguing readings! Onward~
-- Sherry Jones (Track 1: Game Studies Facilitator)
**This week's recorded live streaming video is published at the end of the page.
Game-Based Learning with Commercial Games
- [PDF] "Authentic Learning Experiences Through Play: Games, Simulations and the Construction of Knowledge" by Lisa Galarneau (2005)
- [PDF] "Studying Games in School: a Framework for Media Education" by Caroline Pelletier (2005)
- [PDF] "Making Right(s) Decision: Artificial Life and Rights Reconsidered" by Juyun Kim (2005)
- [PDF] "What Happens If You Catch Whypox? Children’s Learning Experiences of Infectious Disease in a Multi-user Virtual Environment" by Nina R. Neulight and Yasmin B. Kafai (2005)
- [PDF] "Digital Games for Education: When Meanings Play" by Suzanne de Castell (2007)
- [PDF] "What Videogame Making Can Teach Us About Literacy and Learning: Alternative Pathways into Participatory Culture" by Kylie A. Peppler and Yasmin B. Kafai (2007)
- [PDF] "Game-Based Learning or Game-Based Teaching?" by Paul Pivec (2009)
- [PDF] "A Pedagogy of Play: Integrating Computer Games into the Writing Classroom" by Rebekah Shultz Colby and Richard Coby (2011)
- [PDF] "Adolescent Thinking and Online Writing After the Use of Commercial Games in the Classroom" by Pilar Lacasa et. al. (2011)
- [PDF] "Games and Machinima in Adolescents’ Classrooms" by Pilar Lacasa et. al. (2011)
- [PDF] "Rating Logic Puzzle Difficulty Automatically in a Human Perspective" by Hao Wang et. al. (2012)
- [PDF] "A Reality Game to Cross Disciplines: Fostering Networks and Collaboration" by Benjamin Stokes et. al. (2013)
- [PRESENTATION] "Let's Play a Game - Learn Philosophy and Rhetoric via Digital Game-Based Learning" by Sherry Jones (2014)
- [ARTICLE] "Game-Based Learning: What It Is, Why It Works, and Where It's Going" by Jessica Trybus (2014)
- [TUTORIAL] "Portal 2 Education Version" by Educade
- [ARTICLE] "Minecraft in Education" by Minecraft Wiki (2014)
Game-Based Learning with Serious/Educational/Epistemic Games
- [PDF] "Learning Games as a Platform for Simulated Science Practice" by Rikke Magnussen (2005)
- [PDF] "OceanQuest: A University-Based Serious Game Project" by J. R. Parker and Sonny Chan (2005)
- [PDF] "The Ethics of Indigenous Storytelling: using the Torque Game Engine to Support Australian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage" by Theodor G. Wyeld et. al. (2007)
- [PDF] "Designing a Game to Model Consumer Misbehavior" by Penny Drennan et. al. (2007)
- [PDF] "Teacher Roles in Learning Games - When Games Become Situated in Schools by Rikke Magnussen (2007)
- [PDF] "The Gigue is Up: High Culture Gets Games" by Jennifer Jenson et. al. (2009)
- [PDF] "Peer Puppeteers: Alternate Reality Gaming in Primary School Settings" by Angela Colvert (2009)
- [PDF] "Exploring Anonymity in Cooperative Board Games" by Jonas Linderoth (2011)
- [PDF] "Epistemic Games & Applied Drama: Converging Conventions for Serious Play" by David Cameron et. al. (2011)
- [PDF] Educational Wargaming: Design Flaw or Beneficial to Learning?" by Anders Frank (2011)
- [PDF] "Design(er) META Game" by Cary Staples et. al. (2013)
Gamified Learning with Gameful Systems and Pervasive Games
- [PDF] "Gamification in Education: What, How, and Why Bother?" by Joey J. Lee and Jessica Hammer (2011)
- [PDF] "A Practitioner's Guide to Gamification in Education" by Wendy Hsin-Yuan Huang and Dilip Soman (2013)
- [PDF] "It’s All Fun and Games: A History of Ideas Concerning Gamification" by Felix Raczkowski (2013)
- [PDF] "Gamifying Citizen Science: Lessons and Future Directions" by Anne Bowser et. al. (2013)
- [PRESENTATION] "Codename Heroes: Pervasive Games for Empowerment" by Jon Back et. al. (2013)
- [PRESENTATION] "Designing a Game Layer for Student Success" by Lawley Phelps (2013)
Recorded Live Streaming Video (Review of This Week's Readings)
Published: Nov. 24, 2014.