Integrating Games into the Classroom

The game-based learning approach has already shown its strengths from the learners’ point of view. However, there are numerous unrevealed ways to support teachers’ work within the game-based approach. Unfortunately, games that exclude the teacher from the game-based learning process dominate the markets, which is of great concern. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to study the use of novel game features that enable teachers to participate in game-based learning events. In this chapter, the teacher’s role in the game-based learning process is considered through several different game examples that are designed to fulfill both learners’ and teachers’ needs. The examples show that there are both computational and non-computational methods that can be used to support learning and teachers’ work in the game world. Based on previous results it can be argued that the diffusion of game-based learning can be facilitated only if both learners’ and teachers’ needs and goals are taken into account.

Time Factor in the Curriculum Integration of Game-Based Learning

From primary and secondary educational levels to higher education and lifelong learning, the use of games for educational purposes has become a focus of increasing interest for instructional designers, teachers, and researchers. To ensure the achievement of learning objectives and competency in the use of games for educational purposes, the use of Game-Based Learning (GBL) in the curriculum should be considered in terms of its learner-centred characteristics, game dynamics, and interactional requirements. A dimension that involves all these characteristics is the time factor. Time is considered in this chapter from three different points of view: learner’s psychological time; temporal gameplay; and the “interaction tempo” required for successfully including games in the curriculum. This chapter describes four typologies of the time factor: time-on-task; temporal perspectives of learners; temporal gameplay; and interaction tempo. Finally, the chapter proposes practical ideas for game designers and teachers when using GBL in face-to-face and online contexts.

Game-Based Teaching

This chapter outlines theoretical and empirical perspectives on how Game-Based Teaching can be integrated within the context of formal schooling. Initially, this is done by describing game scenarios as models for possible actions that need to be translated into curricular knowledge practices, pedagogical knowledge practices, and everyday knowledge practices. Secondly, the chapter emphasizes how teachers must be able to shift back and forth between various interactional roles in order to facilitate game scenarios. Finally, a discussion is presented on how teachers choose different pedagogical approaches to game-based teaching, which may or may not correspond with the pedagogical models of particular games.

Using the Sims 3 for Narrative Construction in Secondary Education

In this chapter, the authors explore an innovative educational classroom scenario where commercial video games are used as an educational tool. They analyse an experiment involving students between the ages of 12 and 13, during the second semester of 2010, in a “Language and Literature” class of a Spanish Secondary School. The main aim of this chapter is to develop new literacies through new educational strategies. These relate commercial video games with the curriculum in order to improve students’ specific cultural competences and social skills. The authors show how the social simulation video game “The Sims 3” can be used as a learning resource for students to create narratives and descriptions using a variety of media.

Integrating Game-Enhanced Mathematics Learning into the Pre-Service Training of Teachers

Mathematical literacy is a core literacy that functions as a critical gatekeeper for participation in many aspects of modern society. Research has shown that the way mathematics is taught at school is highly associated with students’ achievement and interest levels. Declining interest in mathematics and the need to raise the educational standards of youth in this discipline set a critical agenda for the revision of pedagogical practices. Digital games hold a lot of promise as tools for improving mathematics instruction at the school level. This chapter reports the main insights gained from a study that implemented a game-enhanced learning environment for the training of pre-service elementary school teachers. Teachers experienced some of the ways in which online educational games could help students internalize key mathematical concepts across the school curriculum and build their problem-solving skills, while at the same time improving their attitudes towards the subject. The course also familiarized teachers with the design principles for constructivist gaming environments. Findings indicate a positive impact on teachers’ competence in selecting, evaluating, and productively using online games as an instructional tool.

Games in Entrepreneurship Education to Support the Crafting of an Entrepreneurial Mindset

An increasing number of education institutions, including many universities and colleges, are offering entrepreneurship education. This development is driven by the hope that more entrepreneurs could be “created” through such efforts, and that these entrepreneurs through their newly founded ventures will contribute to economic growth and job creation. At higher education institutions, the majority of entrepreneurship courses rely on writing business plans as a main pedagogical tool for enhancing the students’ entrepreneurial capabilities. In this chapter, the authors argue instead for the need for a pedagogy that focuses on supporting students in crafting an entrepreneurial mindset as the basis for venturing activities. They discuss the potential role of games in such entrepreneurship education and present the example of an entrepreneurship game from the Swedish context, which was developed by a group of young female entrepreneurs. The authors describe the game and discuss their experiences of playing it with a group of novice entrepreneurship and management students at the master’s level, and they review the effectiveness of the game in terms of how it supports students in crafting an entrepreneurial mindset. The authors conclude the chapter by outlining how entrepreneurship games could be integrated into a university curriculum and suggest some directions for future research.

Games in Higher Education

Medical knowledge has increased exponentially in the last decades. Healthcare professionals face a lifetime challenge in keeping abreast with current medical education. Continuing Medical Education (CME) is an ongoing challenge. Traditional adult education, largely used in medical training, shows little effectiveness. Problem-based-learning has been proposed as a student-centred pedagogy to overcome failure of traditional medical instruction. In this chapter, the authors review the status quo of medical education, certification, and recertification in Europe. A summary of the history of simulation in medical education is presented. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in using video games for educational purposes. This is also true for medical education. The use of serious games in medical education is reviewed, and its integration in medical curricula is discussed. The efforts to raise awareness of policy makers are described. Finally, a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of these technologies as well as a proposal to overcome some of its limitations are made.

The Impact of International Management on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in the Workforce

Managers tend to recruit individuals of highest educational standards who deserve quality jobs and attractive remuneration. Equally, disabled persons should enjoy the same benefits. In our era of unprecedented technological development, education should be flexible in order to meet the contemporary demands and the needs of all persons. This chapter analyzes the use of aids, including educational games that can be helpful in supporting people with disabilities. Types of games and games for disabled persons are considered. A more active involvement of international managers in the use of games in educational/training courses for disabled persons is also proposed. Their duties must be amended to include participation in curricula design for any level of vocational/technical education.

A Design Framework for Educational Exergames

This chapter presents a framework for understanding the elements of educational exergames that combine both cognitive and physical gameplay. The aim of the framework is to provide a foundation to develop engaging and effective educational exergames as well as to provide a blueprint to define reasonable research settings. By using the framework, designers can scrutinize their game designs, either in research or commercial settings, and reveal new ways to optimize learning effects, health effects, and user experience in educational exergames. The chapter describes a case study in which the framework was used to fine-tune an educational exergame called “Yammy Attack.” The results showed that the framework was a useful tool to imagine and discover novel design solutions that would not necessarily otherwise emerge. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the usefulness of educational exergames and possibilities to incorporate them into the schools.

Teachers and Students as Game Designers

The amount of research done on educational game integration has lately witnessed a large development. Many scholars believe that games can motivate, engage, and stimulate students’ higher order thinking skills, and studies have shown that the integration of commercial and popular games in the classroom provide positive impact on students’ learning. On the other hand, there are other voices that reveal the multitude of factors hampering the integration of these games into the educational environment. Generally, these factors are derived from the lack of instructional games designed to cater for classroom teaching and learning processes. In this respect, there are efforts made by the educational researchers and game designers to minimize the hampering factors. One alternative some scholars offered to this was for teachers and students to act as game designers, developing games to be used for classroom integration. This chapter explores the possibilities for both trainers and trainees to design games tailored for classroom integration.