The Future of Digital Game-Based Learning

This chapter discusses the potential future of games for learning through the lens of current advantages of real-world education that are thus far lacking in educational games. It focuses on four main facets of the real-world educational experience: adapting content to an individual student, the rigorous evaluation of educational media, the ease of modification of educational games, and the application of games to new domains and teaching techniques. The chapter then suggests how we as designers and developers can make strides towards incorporating these lacking elements into how we build and use educational games. The author hopes that this discussion can be used to foster discussion about where the field could be and should be going in the near future.

Learning Processes and Violent Video Games

Though video games can produce desirable learning outcomes, such as improved performance in school subjects, they also can produce undesirable outcomes, such as increased aggression. Some of the basic learning principles that make video games (particularly violent video games) effective at teaching are discussed in this chapter. A general learning model is presented to explain how video games can produce a variety of effects in their users. This model explains both the immediate, short term effects and cumulative, long term effects of video games. Implications of these principles are discussed in relation to education. The issue of addressing violent video games’ effects on aggression is also examined.

From E-Learning to Games-Based E-Learning

The emergence of the Internet has had a significant impact on higher education where we have seen elearning evolve from a marginal form of education to a commonly accepted and increasingly popular alternative to traditional face-to-face education. While e-learning has many advantages, there have been problems identified, such as lack of contact leading to feelings of isolation; the need for a motivated, self-disciplined, and mature learner; the monotonous nature of some e-learning materials; and increased drop out rates. If e-learning has developed a reputation for being ‘boring and mindless,’ games have developed the reputation for being engaging and challenging. In recent years, a new form of learning has been developing, namely games-based e-learning, which builds on the successes of e-learning while providing a more stimulating and relevant learning environment for younger people who have been brought up in an environment of powerful home PCs, graphic-rich multiplayer Internet gaming, and mobile phones with ever-increasing functionality. This article will explore the concept of games-based e-learning, discuss some of its pedagogic underpinnings, and examine barriers that may limit the uptake and development of this relatively new approach to learning.

A Qualitative Meta-Analysis of Computer Games as Learning Tools

Drawing on grounded theory approach and a qualitative meta-analysis, this chapter intends to systematically review and synthesize the theories, methods, and findings of both qualitative and quantitative inquiries on computer-based instructional games. A major purpose of this literature review and meta-analysis is to inform policy and practice based on existing studies. Four major recurring themes concerning the effectiveness of computer-based instructional games have emerged from a comparative analysis with 89 instructional gaming studies and are discussed with the support of exemplar research. The chapter will assist practitioners and policymakers in understanding the “best practices” and key factors of a computer game-based learning program.

Managerial Computer Business Games

Interview with Anthony Davidson, SuperAguri F1 GP Driver (autosport.com, March 2, 2007): Q: Can you actually learn anything from the [F1 videogame] though? AD: Absolutely. When I did the 2004 season, I really relied on having video data from the team and using the PlayStation games as well to learn the circuits. We always deal in corner numbers, we don’t use the proper corner names, so we have a little map in the car with the numbers. For you to visualize it beforehand is a help, because when they talk about a bump in turn three then you know what they are talking about before you have even walked the circuit or seen any onboard footage. You know roughly what the track looks like and when you get out there you smile because it is exactly what you were doing in your living room. And now the graphics have stepped up another level it is so much more realistic. F1 drivers can benefit from computer simulations, with a supplement of training before racing on a newly built circuit, with no consolidated knowledge. Managers (and students, too) can benefit from PC-based simulations that recreate complex business worlds as well. Books contain theories, along with a good number of examples. Computer-based business games can add dynamism and a temporal dimension to the standard managerial theories contained in books. Many researchers think that the potential of the computer as a learning tool is very high if we involve the user in a simulation process, instead of giving him a description of reality. This theory is confirmed by many field examples, as shown before by the Formula 1 pilot, who adopts a particular software in order to learn how to drive on a circuit that he has not tested directly. U.S. Marines play Quake and Unreal to simulate the mission in which they will be involved. Business games, finally, start to be adopted in managerial education as learning support tools. For example, EIS simulation has been developed at Insead Business School in order to simulate organizational change, while FirmReality has been developed at Bocconi University to study the integrated use of organizational capabilities to gain competitive advantage. Scientific and managerial literatures recognize the potential of these instruments for learning purposes (compatible with andragogical and collaborative learning theories), but cannot address their design and the integration within distance-learning practices. The current debate on computer simulations involves the research and the standardization of rules for the project phases, in order to take advantage of the potential attributed to this tool, and enhance the compatibility between managers/students and this form of learning.

Electronic Games Improve Adult Learning in Diverse Populations

Impressed by the motivation and effort displayed by players of complex and highly interactive electronic games, psychological researchers seek to apply gaming techniques to enhance globalization of diverse populations in problem solving and decision making. Researchers are interested in identifying characteristics of entertainment games that influence player motivation and learning. From the perspective of Interactive Cognitive Complexity theory, researchers need to examine how game variables relate to key learning components, including learner affect, cognitive strategy, and knowledge/skill acquisition. From a learning perspective, video simulation games are primarily a series of problem solving interactions set in a specific virtual context and using various learning aids that support the solving of problems to achieve the object of the game. Cognitive problem solving factors and strategies are; therefore, key independent variables for learning game studies. In creating such a framework, the authors propose five conceptual categories of instructionally relevant game variables: (1) virtual context, (2) problem specification, (3) interaction and control, (4) learning support, and (5) social interaction. Proposed is that electronic gaming methodology, founded in cognitive learning theory, will enhance efficient and effective development efforts to improve learning of global management strategies.

Using Online Simulation to Engage Users in an Authentic Learning Environment

This chapter describes how we used an authentic learning framework (Herrington & Oliver, 2000) to inform the design of an online simulation that included gaming features specifically designed to enhance learner engagement. We describe our analysis of user responses to the simulation, focusing particularly on learner engagement and what the users learned from using the software. Our research revealed that users initially approached the software from a gaming framework, however with extended interaction with the software, moved toward treating the virtual experience as an authentic environment, even to the point of empathizing with some of the virtual characters and downloading some of the support material that they might use in real classrooms. We offer some explanations for this change and conclude the chapter by identifying future directions for researchers who may be interested in this field.

Using Digital Games to Develop Ethical Teachers

Teacher education that emphasizes the understanding and assessment of ethics can support the creation of an ethically aware and critically engaged citizenship. But how do we develop teachers who are reflective and critical thinkers of ethics? One potential solution is to incorporate digital games and simulations into teacher education curricula. Game worlds might be suitable playgrounds for ethical thinking because they can encourage experimentation with alternative identities, possibilities, and perspectives, and can support a learning sciences framework where: 1) cognition is situated, 2) cognition is social, and 3) cognition is distributed. In fact, games themselves, like all media, reflect designed values systems that should be considered and analyzed. Using case studies of current commercial and more explicitly educational digital games, we create a set of recommendations for creating future games and simulations that teach ethics to educators.

Learning by Doing via Game Making

The purpose of this chapter is to explore how learning, by making games, can provide opportunities for higher-order thinking such as problem solving, decision-making, and knowledge construction in children. As the game design process involves students drawing on multiple intelligences, it often provides students who are typically not successful in school with a chance to see themselves as capable members of the classroom learning community. In the classroom, computer-based game-making activities give students the opportunity to create lively interactive simulations for any subject, for any grade level, and can be used by students with a wide variety of learning styles. Game making can be used as an alternative way for students to communicate information and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

Autonomous Specialization in a Multi-Robot System using Evolving Neural Networks

Artificial evolution has been considered as a promising approach for coordinating the controller of an autonomous mobile robot. However, it is not yet established whether artificial evolution is also effective in generating collective behaviour in a multi-robot system (MRS). In this study, two types of evolving artificial neural networks are utilized in an MRS. The first is the evolving continuous time recurrent neural network, which is used in the most conventional method, and the second is the topology and weight evolving artificial neural networks, which is used in the noble method. Several computer simulations are conducted in order to examine how the artificial evolution can be used to coordinate the collective behaviour in an MRS.