Designing games for learning: case studies show how to incorporate impact goals, build a team, and work with experts to create an effective game.Digital games for learning are now commonplace, used in settings that range from K–12 education to advanced medical training. In this book, Kurt Squire examines the ways that games make an impact on learning, investigating how designers and developers incorporate authentic social impact goals, build a team, and work with e...

Over a decade ago the concept of "design experiments" was introduced because of the belief that many of questions could not be adequately addressed by laboratory-based experiments. Since then, design-based research as a term has grown in popularity and significance. The core manuscripts of this special issue respond to the questions: What constitutes design-based research? Why is it important? What are the methods to carry it out? At the end of this issue, two strong commentaries situate t...

This volume is the first reader on video games and learning of its kind. Covering game design, game culture and games as twenty-first-century pedagogy, it demonstrates the depth and breadth of scholarship on games and learning to date. The chapters represent some of the most influential thinkers, designers and writers in the emerging field of games and learning - including James Paul Gee, Soren Johnson, Eric Klopfer, Colleen Macklin, Thomas Malaby, Bonnie Nardi, David Sirlin and others. To...

Real-Time Research is a new kind of on-the-spot scholarship. At a series of conferences the authors of this book asked academics educators and designers to collaborate on short-term improvisational research projects - usually completed within 48 hours. What they found out - by way of sock puppets video interviews and lots of critical game play - might just surprise you.

What knowledge and skills do designers of learning technologies need? What is the best way to train them to create high-quality educational technologies? Distilling the wisdom of expert instructors and designers, this cutting-edge guide offers a clear, accessible balance of theory and practical examples.This cutting-edge guide:synthesizes learning, instructional design, and educational technology perspectives on learning-centered technology — highlighting how...

As the title indicates, this book highlights the shifting and emergent features that represent life online, specifically in and around the territory of e-learning.Cybercultures in themselves are complex conglomerations of ideas, philosophies, concepts, and theories, some of which are fiercely contradictory. As a construct, 'cyberculture' is a result of sustained attempts by diverse groups of people to make sense of multifarious activities, linguistic codes, and practices in complic...

New technologies are dramatically changing the face of education and the nature of childhood itself. In Shift to the Future, Nicola Yelland examines the ways in which these technologies are reshaping the social, personal, and educational experiences of childhood, and explores the curricular revisions such changes demand. With a focus on the various information and communications technologies (ICTs) available to young students and the possibilities these ICTs offer for teaching and...

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our a...

Reinventing Project-Based Learning offers educators an accessible guide for maximizing the benefits of project-based learning in todays technology-rich learning environment. This reader-friendly book speaks directly to educators, administrators, and professional development specialists who want to transform learning into a more active, student-driven experience, using technology tools for inquiry, collaboration, and connection to the world beyond the classroom. Examples from educators in m...

Comparing math teaching practices in Japan and Germany with those in the United States, two leading researchers offer a surprising new view of teaching and a bold action plan for improving education inside the American classroom.For years our schools and children have lagged behind international standards in reading, arithmetic, and most other areas of academic achievement. It is no secret that American schools are in dire need of improvement, and that education has...

Market Research just got easierEvery day in business we make decisions. To reduce the risk associated with making these decisions, it's essential to understand your consumer and your market, and this is why we conduct market research. Decisions are not taken in a vacuum; there are competitive products and services in your marketplace, which means that consumers can choose whether or not to buy your product. Some decisions are high risk such as launching a new produc...

Teaching is changing. It is no longer simply about passing on knowledge to the next generation. Teachers in the twenty-first century, in all educational sectors, have to cope with an ever-changing cultural and technological environment. Teaching is now a design science. Like other design professionals – architects, engineers, programmers – teachers have to work out creative and evidence-based ways of improving what they do. Yet teaching is not treated as a design profession.Every d...