: Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture . Henry Jenkins.

The notion of using video games for learning causes some to cringe, others to leap for joy, and many to ask questions about this learning medium. These questions often come from people and organizations that are considering delving into the world of learning games but dont know if this is advisable or dont know where to start. The goal of this paper is to answer those questions about learning games and to help plot a path for people and organizations interested in developing or fostering the development of video games for learning. The paper starts by making a case for learning games grounded in principles of good fun and good learning. From there the paper explores the commercial games market, gleaning lessons from this rapidly growing and diversifying place. In order to address the concerns of those who see edutainment as a dead market, the paper analyzes the downfall of edutainment in the 1990s and establishes how the current movement differs. As there are many applications of games related (more or less) to learning games, the paper lays out the ecology of games with a purpose beyond play. Much of the rest of the paper establishes principles and best practices for moving the field forward in a positive direction. The paper should provide a good grounding in the field and both motivate and inform those wanting to participate in this rapidly growing domain. (http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf)

Moving learning games forward

Media, communication and information flows now define the logic and structure of social relations, a situation that affects almost every dimension of cultural life and activity. This article analyses the transformation of the relationship between computer gaming, media and sport in the global age of 'second modernity'. This analysis is undertaken through a critical case study of the World Cyber Games (WCG). This popular event and the 'cyber-athletes' that compete in it cannot be explained fully by reference to existing studies of computer and video gaming, media and sport, media events or organized sporting competition. It is not possible to think in terms of sport and the media when considering the WCG and organized competitive gaming. This is sport as media or e-sport, a term that signifies the seamless interpenetration of media content, sport and networked information and communications technologies.

Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

Scholars, educators, and media designers are increasingly interested in whether and how digital games might contribute to civic learning. However, there are three main barriers to advancing understanding of games’ potential for civic education: the current practices of formal schooling, a dearth of evidence about what kinds of games best inspire learning about public life, and divergent paradigms of civic engagement. In response, this article develops a conceptual framework for how games might foster civic learning of many kinds. The authors hypothesize that the most effective games for civic learning will be those that best integrate game play and content, that help players make connections between their individual actions and larger social structures, and that link ethical and expedient reasoning. This framework suggests an agenda for game design and research that could illuminate whether and how games can be most fruitfully incorporated into training and education for democratic citizenship and civic l...

/pdf/games-for-civic-learning-a-conceptual-framework-and-agenda-5a72ztck9g.pdf

Games for civic learning: A conceptual framework and agenda for research and design

Many popular digital games have historical themes or settings. Taking its cue from recent research emphasizing the educational value of computer and video games, this article investigates the bias of the medium in presenting history. Although sharing an appreciation for the cultural value of history simulations and games, the author argues that the digital game medium currently tends to result in stereotypically masculine, mechanical, and spatially oriented interactive presentations of history. This article does not take a technological determinist stance nor a simplistic view of interpretation. Nevertheless, the author believes that the weight and momentum of the historical development of the digital game medium, its technological structure, and its institutional character have encouraged certain patterns in digital games that should be critically examined.

Strategic Simulations and Our Past: The Bias of Computer Games in the Presentation of History

The video game theory reader

lenges many generally accepted notions and theses and gives many new cogent arguments, some of them very interesting. Indeed, the book deals with so many questions that this reviewer simply does not have enough space to consider all of them. To close, I may only repeat myself by writing that this work is one incredible, intelligent, innovative book on journalism history. It is a must-read study, or as Ebert and Roeper would say, “Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!”

Kevin Schut

Papers

Strategic Simulations and Our Past: The Bias of Computer Games in the Presentation of History

The video game theory reader

Thinking Through Television