velop more interesting and effective approaches.

To meet those challenges, specialized research groups have sprung up at universities across the country. New York University’s Games for Learning Institute (G4LI), for example, offers a forum for experts in disciplines like computer science, cognition, and educational research to collaborate on experiments and research. Founded in 2008 with funding from Microsoft, G4LI’s mission is to conduct rigorous empirical research into how games can support learning. Thus far, work has focused on science, technology, engineering, and math topics and on middle school, when children typically lose interest in those subjects.

“We’re moving from individual case studies that address the effectiveness of a single game to a more descriptive, qualitative type of research,” says Jan Plass, a professor of educational communication and technology at NYU and G4LI codirector. “We observe game play, we test things empirically … we’re interested in finding patterns.” Plass’s colleagues in the computer science department then build mini-games to test effective features—a particular incentive system or type of player support, for example—and further refine their understanding. G4LI researchers have also reached out to game developers and educators to analyze their experiences. The ultimate goal, says Plass, is to develop a comprehensive set of principles and standards that could help people effectively design, build, and use educational games.

Other game-related research is ongoing at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Indiana University. Likewise, Games for Change, a New York nonprofit organization that focuses on social justice issues, provides an additional platform for people to share ideas, resources, and tools. Though many findings are preliminary, one important theme that’s emerged is the need for teaching material to be integrated into the framework of a game’s design rather than added to it later. “You need something that allows knowledge to unfold,” says Katherine Isbister, a professor of digital media and computer science and engineering at New York University’s Polytechnic

“Games,” says
James Gee,
“are goal-directed
learning spaces.”

Institute and an investigator at G4LI. It’s therefore important to start with a definite set of ideas and objectives rather than a structure of play.

Ian Bogost, a founding partner of At-lanta-based gaming studio Persuasive Games, concurs. Effective educational games, says Bogost, construct a model of how a particular issue or subject works. Players then interact with that model to understand its contours and reasoning, and can ultimately decide whether to embrace or reject it.

“It’s through the experience of making choices that you learn,” he asserts.

Bogost and his colleagues build educational games for a diverse set of corporate and nonprofit clients. Large companies want games that give them a more engaging way of training new workers, or make themselves more appealing to younger customers. Political and nonprofit organizations, on the other hand, are trying to reach teens and educate them about problems like climate change and poverty. Persuasive Games has also developed several issues-based games of its own. Unfortunately, Bogost says, it can be difficult to identify a market for these projects. (“If it’s online, people expect it to be free,” he sighs.)

Integrating games into secondary school classrooms can be challenging. Each district has its own curriculum and objectives. Some teachers are skeptical about gaming’s pedagogical value, while others are unfamiliar with the variety of available games. For now, researchers say, the easiest way to get games into the classroom is at a grassroots level, and G4LI and other academic institutes are working hard to foster relationships with local schools.

At the university level, where games enjoy more widespread curricular support and adoption, computer science departments in particular have begun

to feel an effect. The most recent Taul-bee Report indicates an upsurge in interest and enrollment in the field, and anecdotal evidence suggests that gaming may have played a role as games and gaming techniques help make core computer science principles more accessible to students. The prospect of being able to join the still-growing game development industry has also attracted new prospects to the field.

As researchers continue to work out principles of learning, cognition, and design, they would be well advised to keep an essential principle of the gaming industry in mind: Make it fun. It may not be what most teens think of when they think of school. But as Isbister points out, it’s at the heart of why they play games—and is one of the main things that keeps them engaged and willing to persist in ways that many teachers only dream of.

 

Leah Hoffmann is brooklyn-based science and technology writer. ken Perlin, new york university, contributed to the development of this article.

© 2009 aCM 0001-0782/09/0800 $10.00

Call for Nominations for CACM GENERAL ELECTION

The ACM Nominating Committee is preparing to nominate candidates for the officers of ACM: President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer; and two Members at Large.

Suggestions for candidates are
solicited. Names should be
sent by November 5, 2009 to the
Nominating Committee Chair, c/o
Pat Ryan, Chief Operating Officer,
ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701,
New York, N Y 10121-0701. With
each recommendation please
include background information
and names of individuals the
Nominating Committee can
contact for additional information
if necessary. Stuart Feldman
is the Chair of the Nominating
Committee.