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Jane McGonigal spoke about games and education at EDUCAUSE 2013 in Anaheim, Calif., and gave a famous Ted Talk three years ago. Ted Talk 2010 video ANAHEIM, Calif. - Video games may sound more recreational than educational, but experts believe that games will play a greater role in student engagement in years to come.

Gaming in education is a really big deal, and a very fun way to get students more involved and interested in education. Board games, video games, even active outdoor games all have an important place in education, and these videos share more about their role in learning. Check out #49.

Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education (G.A.M.E) is an online community of educators who game.

Abstract: Interactive immersive entertainment, or videogame playing, has emerged as a major entertainment and educational medium. As research and development initiatives proliferate, educational researchers might benefit by developing more grounded theories about them. This article argues for framing game play as a designed experience. Players' understandings are developed through cycles of performance within the gameworlds, which instantiate particular theories of the world (ideological worlds). Players develop new identities both through game play and through the gaming communities in which these identities are enacted. Thus research that examines game-based learning needs to account for both kinds of interactions within the game-world and in broader social contexts. Examples from curriculum developed for Civilization III and Supercharged! show how games can communicate powerful ideas and open new identity trajectories for learners.

This blog post features the top 10 online learning communities for educators involved and interested in game-based learning. Join a community and get involved :)

This panel discussion led by Chris Haskell features Marianne Malmstrom, Peggy Sheehy, Andrew Miller, and Lucas Gillispe. GREAT discussion on the future of educational games and some of the controversy around games and learning.

An MIT Education Arcade paper on the value of using digital games, social networking, and simulations in the learning environment.

This blog post discusses the basics of game based learning and takes a look at current game based learning projects incorporating games designed for education as well as popular off the shelf titles.

Game to Learn supports learning in the classroom and is reaching out to educators across the globe for anecdotal accounts of successful uses for games in education.

GALA aims to shape the scientific community and build a European Virtual Research Centre aimed at gathering, integrating, harmonizing and coordinating research on SGs and disseminating knowledge, best practices and tools as a reference point at an international level. The other key focuses of the project are: the support to deployment in the actual educational and training settings; the fostering of innovation and knowledge transfer through research-business dialogue; the development high-quality didactics on SG by promoting and supporting courses at Master and PhD level.

ARG Academy: A course for educators to learn about and build ARGs

This open course is designed for educators who want to learn more games, simulations and game-like environments for education. It is designed for all levels of participation. We are using the matrix from Dr. Lisa Dawley's Social Network Knowledge Construction as the model for the course.

What if instruction could actually engage students and get them excited about learning? What if school could foster student creativity and support their expanding imaginations? What if educators around the world had the tools to provide students with the 21st century skills to imagine and create their own futures in our ever-changing global society? Education innovation is in full creative flower at Quest to Learn, a New York City public middle and high school. As the Guidance Counselor and Wellness Coordinator, I support the groundbreaking and effective teaching and learning that takes place here, nurturing social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as 21st century skills like inventiveness, risk taking and collaboration.

Abstract: New information technologies make information available just-in-time and on demand and are reshaping how we interact with information. Meanwhile, schools remain in a print-based culture and a growing number of students are disaffiliating from traditional school. Video games are emblematic of this paradigm shift toward a digital culture and may have potential as a medium for instruction. This case study investigates one enactment of a video game-based curriculum and explores the nature of learning within game-based environments. Specifically, it describes how fictional elements situated the learning experience and induced academic practices, the nature of student-created inscriptions influenced emergent understandings, and the game-based curriculum's game design features pushed students' conceptual understandings, and how learning through a technology-enhanced curriculum triggered students' identities as independent problem solvers. The implications for librarians in a world where teachers and students are designers and creators of information are discussed.

Most educators are dismissive of video games. But corporations, the government, and the military have already recognized and harnessed their tremendous educative power. Schools have to catch up, the authors argue. Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K. R., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. P. (2005). WCER Working Paper No. 2005-4.

20 blogs dedicated to game based learning.

This blog posts discusses the WoWinSchools project and the celebration of failure that is part of the learning through gaming.

Four approaches to playing MUDs are identified and described. These approaches may arise from the inter-relationship of two dimensions of playing style: action versus interaction, and world-oriented versus player-oriented. An account of the dynamics of player populations is given in terms of these dimensions, with particular attention to how to promote balance or equilibrium.

Notes created and shared by a collaborative of participants at the #gls2013 #gls9 conference.

University of Wisconsin game-based learning scholar Constance Steinkuehler talks about her research on online video games and literacy, and how learning skyrockets when students are passionate about the subject matter. Steinkuehler is currently serving as a White House policy analyst, shaping the Obama administration's efforts to encourage development of games that improve health and education.