A Whisper in the Dark was published anonymously in 1877 and again in 1889, this time attributed to Louisa May Alcott, along with A Modern Mephistopheles. This story is a far cry from Alcott’s usual light fare for children. It’s a dark and melodramatic tale about Sybil, a young girl of seventeen, an orphan under the guardianship of her uncle and raised by a “Madame Bernard,” who is kind but tells her little of her origins. She slowly pieces together the truth, falling in love along the way ...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third Joint International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2017, held in Valencia, Spain, in November 2017. This conference bundles the activities of the 8th International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, SGDA 2017, and the 7th Conference on Serious Games, GameDays 2017.The total of 23 full papers, 3 short papers, and 4 poster papers was carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The topics covered by ...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2018, held in Darmstadt, Germany, in November 2018.The 15 full and 12 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: serious games studies; game-based learning and teaching; game development - serious games design, models, tools and emerging technologies; and serious games for health.

Three-dimensional (3D) immersive virtual worlds have been touted as being capable of facilitating highly interactive, engaging, multimodal learning experiences. Much of the evidence gathered to support these claims has been anecdotal but the potential that these environments hold to solve traditional problems in online and technology-mediated education—primarily learner isolation and student disengagement—has resulted in considerable investments in virtual world platforms like Second Life,...

This textbook provides an introduction to the fundamentals of serious games, which differ considerably from computer games that are meant for pure entertainment.Undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines who want to learn about serious games are one target group of this book. Prospective developers of serious games are another, as they can use the book for self-study in order to learn about the distinctive features of serious game design and development. And ultim...

This book covers the latest advances in playful user interfaces – interfaces that invite social and physical interaction. These new developments include the use of audio, visual, tactile and physiological sensors to monitor, provide feedback and anticipate the behavior of human users. The decreasing cost of sensor and actuator technology makes it possible to integrate physical behavior information in human-computer interactions. This leads to many new entertainment and game applications th...

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on HCI in Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, VAMR 2016, held as part of the 18th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2016, which took place in Toronto, Canada, in July 2016.HCII 2016 received a total of 4354 submissions, of which 1287 papers were accepted for publication after a careful reviewing process.The 70 papers presented in this volume are organized in topic...

This book highlights the challenges and potential of educational learning or industry-based training using serious games and social media platforms. In particular, the book addresses applications used in businesses and education-related organizations in Asia, where the framework and experience of serious games have been used to address specific problems in the real world. The topics that will be present in this book includes future of serious games and immersive technologies and their impa...

This is a guide to the teaching of computing and coding in primary schools, and an exploration of how children develop their computational thinking. It covers all areas of the National Curriculum for primary computing and offers insight into effective teaching.The text considers three strands of computer science, digital literacy and information technology. The teaching of coding is especially challenging for primary teachers, so it highlights learning on this, giving practical exa...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Second Joint International Conference on Serious Games, JCSG 2016, held in Brisbane, QLD, Australia, in September 2016. This conference bundles the activities of the International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications, SGDA, and the Conference on Serious Games, GameDays.The total of 36 full papers and 5 short papers was carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers were organized in topical sect...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA 2016, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in December 2016.The 27 revised regular papers presented together with 14 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The papers cover topics such as games and sustainability; games for math and programming; games and health; games and soft skills; games and management; games and learning; game de...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, GALA 2015, held in Rome, Italy, in December 2015.The 33 revised full papers and 15 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. The papers presented cover a variety of aspects and knowledge fields. They are grouped around the following topics: games for health, games for mobility, pervasive gaming and urban mobility.