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"What do you think is causing pollution in the city?" "Factories." "Which factories are causing pollution?" "Coal Factories." "So to reduce pollution, what would you do?" "Close 'em down." "But then you have to think about, how are you going to get energy?" Seventh grade engineering teacher Petrut Ababei is helping his student Danny Jimenez think his way through an early attempt to figure out SimCityEDU, an educational video game designed by the non-profit GlassLab. Ababei is beta testing the game at Lazear Charter Academy in Oakland, California."

"In early September, my sixth grade social studies students began playing the SimCityEDU beta. Around the same time, my seventh graders began playing a non-digital debate game -- complete with teams, a point system and a leaderboard. All of my students are rewarded for their growth and accomplishments with a digital badge system. After one month, I find that my students remain highly engaged in their learning. Gamifying my classroom has truly been transformative! "

"Games are being used much more widely in schools than they were when I first started writing about them 2 or 3 years ago. As of fall 2013, 74% of K-8 teachers were using digital games. 55% of these teachers have students playing digital games at least weekly, 9% daily. The games they are using are mostly designed to be educational, with only 5% playing commercial games, and 8% playing hybrids (commercial games adapted for education like MincraftEDU or SimCityEdu). These insights come from Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop, who recently released a study surveying K-8 teachers in order to understand how they are implementing digital games in their classrooms."