Table of Contents
Foreword James Paul Gee ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter 1 Possible Worlds: Why Study Video Games? Aren't They a Waste of Time? 1
Designing Experience, or That Evasive "Fun Factor" 5
Social Gaming: Possible Identities 10
Possible Cultures 12
Digital Media and Learning 14
Theory and Practice 15
Feature: The Most Fun You Can Have with Model Railroads Without Sniffing Glue 17
Chapter 2 Ideological Worlds: What Makes a "Good" Educational Game? 19
Interest-Driven Learning 19
Worlds with Bias 22
Civilization as a Geographical Model 26
Ideological Worlds as Frameworks for Thinking 28
Meaning-Making in Ideological Worlds 30
Participation in Ideological Worlds 31
Theory and Practice 35
Feature: Cooperative Game Play 38
Chapter 3 Teaching with Games: Learning Through Play 40
Before-School Corpse Retrievals 40
From Players to Designers 43
Interest-Driven Learning 46
Open Access 48
The Montessori System: Following the Needs of the Child 48
Toward Game-Based Pedagogies 57
Theory and Practice 59
Chapter 4 Community Organizing for Participatory Learning 61
Creating a Community to Learn With 62
Inside Online Affinity Spaces 69
Education in a Digital Age: Participatory Education 71
Learning Through Participation 71
Theory and Practice 75
Chapter 5 Games-to-Teach: Designing Games for Learning 77
Broadening the Discussion of Education and Games 77
Games, Popular Media, Science, and Learning 79
Creating a Research Agenda for Games and Education 80
Designing Games for Learning 85
Building an Educational Game from Scratch 90
Inventing New Genres: Environmental Detectives 99
Theory and Practice 104
Feature: Learning to Be a Full-Spectrum Warrior 107
Chapter 6 Games in Classrooms: Replaying History 109
Teaching World History 109
Introducing Civ3 113
Failure, Trade Offs, and Just-in-Time Lectures 116
"This Game Isn't So Bad": Frustration, Failure, and Appropriation 117
The Emergence of a Game-Playing Culture 118
Recursive Play 122
What Students Learned 127
Civilization Camp: Developing Expert Gamers 128
Creating a New Gaming Culture 129
Developing Gaming Expertise 129
Theory and Practice 138
Chapter 7 The Aesthetics of Play 140
Games, Learning, Society: Building a Program 141
The Aesthetics of Game-Based Learning 142
Aesthetics of Being Viewtiful Joe 145
Apolyton University: Trajectories of Participation 150
During-Action Reports: Cognitive Artifacts That Organize Practice 152
Design Thinking 155
Designing Civ4 159
Toward an Aesthetics of Game-Based Learning 160
Theory and Practice 161
Feature: I Love Rock 'n' Roll 164
Chapter 8 Design Literacy: Productive Play 165
Developing Game Expertise 166
Developing Game Fluency 168
Games as Occasions of Theory Building and Testing 169
Competition and Learning 170
Organizing by Competitions 172
Trajectories of Participation 176
Centers of Expertise 177
What Learning Occurred? A Community Well Played 177
Theory and Practice 180
Chapter 9 Games Go to School: Situated Learning, Adaptable Curricula 182
Place-Based Gaming 185
Place-Based Learning 188
Learning Through Design, or How to Design an Educational Game 189
From Game Designer to Community Organizer 192
Community Organizing as Curriculum 194
Ramping Up 196
Situating Learning at South Beach 198
Scientific Citizenship 207
Scaling 210
Theory and Practice 211
Chapter 10 The Future of Games for Learning 213
Creating Education Media 213
Independent Games 214
Informal Learning Contexts 220
Scientific Citizenship 221
Example: Citizen Science 222
Mobile Media 224
Creating the Future of Educational Technology 227
Coda: On Researching the Effectiveness of Educational Interventions 228
Gold Standard Research 228
"Science" Fetish 230
Health Care Envy 232
References 235
Index 241
About the Author 253
