Game-Based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century
The author collected interviews from leading researchers in educational games, including Mark prensky and james Paul gee, to provide this overview look at new learning. After a discussion of the (ir)relevance of traditional classroom, the participants look at the learning benefits of games. Many good quotes. More...

Online Games
This is an odd article in that, while it describes and touts the use of games in learning, its understanding of what constitutes a game seems to be restricted almost entirely to the quiz show format, following the model of Jeopardy Millionaire. Sure, these are games, but it seems to me that online trivia is only a small part of the picture. More...

Surgeons Who Play Video Games Err Less
I think there's an interesting observation here: one of the reasons why learning in the form of computer games may be more effective is that our tools are also beginning to resemble computer games. Take this example, where doctors who used video game training made fewer errors in laparoscopic surgery, which uses a tiny camera and instruments controlled by joysticks outside the body. More...

Nottingham City e-Games
For those of you interested in games and learning, you may want to follow up this link sent to me by Ben Straw, who notes that Nottingham City e-Games is a project "which uses the vehicle of computer games to get kids otherwise disengaged with learning back into school and back on track with school work." The site is a bit sparse, but you can find some reports in the resources section. More...

The 300 Games Every Game Developer (and Gamer) Should Know
OK, it's nowhere near 300 games. And it's just a list; there is no real discussion. But the concept is worth a moment of your time, as it stretches your mind a bit to think of the different categories of games and of the unique properties possessed by each different type of game. Just for fun, also add the author's Talk Like a Gamer to your reading list. More...

Professor Warcraft
Games are better educators than you think, argues the author, and the evidence for this is the deep knowledge gamers have of fictional worlds. "The fact that they generally teach us about fictional worlds or nonacademic issues is secondary to the fact that history, literature, geography, art, and pretty much anything else can be taught effectively in a game environment." The author contrasts current trends in e-learning - "affordable, disposable learning modules so easy and cheap to create that it's better to produce new courses than update old ones" - and suggests that games could adapt to this world. In the gaming community, the equivalent of a learning object is a 'mod' - a player-authored replacement for an original part of the game. More...

Child's Play
Todd sent me this item - what do today's kids think of yesterday's video games? Not much, apparently. More...