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Imagine yourself living some two million years ago. Your survival would have been mainly through hunting and food gathering. Slowly, as the human species evolved, (around 70,000 to 80,000 years ago), they started hunting small game. The word 'game' here means any animal hunted for food. The term game was used as a medieval hunting terminology in the late 13th century. It has its origin from the old English word 'gamen' which means joy, sport, or amusement. Then, as man evolved to the agrarian stage, around 12,000 years ago, he learned to domesticate a few animals and, alongside, grow crops. This was the time when hunting started to become a sport and also a source of food. And gradually, man started inventing different types of games and sports for various purposes. Now you may wonder what the difference between a sport and a game is. A sport is usually a physical activity. But some non-physical activities like chess and bridge are called mind sports. Games, on the other hand, can be physical or mental. All sports are games, but not all games are sports.

Imagine yourself living some two million years ago. Your survival would have been mainly through hunting and food gathering. Slowly, as the human species evolved, (around 70,000 to 80,000 years ago), they started hunting small game. The word 'game' here means any animal hunted for food. The term game was used as a medieval hunting terminology in the late 13th century. It has its origin from the old English word 'gamen' which means joy, sport, or amusement. Then, as man evolved to the agrarian stage, around 12,000 years ago, he learned to domesticate a few animals and, alongside, grow crops. This was the time when hunting started to become a sport and also a source of food. And gradually, man started inventing different types of games and sports for various purposes. Now you may wonder what the difference between a sport and a game is. A sport is usually a physical activity. But some non-physical activities like chess and bridge are called mind sports. Games, on the other hand, can be physical or mental. All sports are games, but not all games are sports.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

20 blogs dedicated to game based learning.

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.

Worth having this list of blogs at the ready if you are interested in Games in Learning!

This blog post speaks to a variety of benefits and ways to introduce video games in the English Classroom. Several games are discusses as well as gamification principals.

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.

Daniel Floyd's video on Video Games and Learning featured in Mark Chen's HP Catalyst Academy's Crash Course in Gaming. The video provides a strong context for the value of tangential learning provided by games. It is presented in an 'in plain english' style.

This article highlights some of the ways video games are being used in the classroom. Trish Cloud and Lucas Gillispe are featured in the article.

As mentioned in my last post, I am planning to gamify next Fall's first-semester FYC course, using Interactive Fiction (IF) and the multiplayer classroom model. The decision to do so came completely independently of a new MOOC that started this past week that focuses on Games Based Learning (GBL).

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.

A collection of videos covering a variety of areas within the realm of game based learning.

One of the many tremendous resources offered by Jerry Blumgarten including sites to articles on games in learning, sites including learning games, etc.

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.

From Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001)

Game-based learning scholar Kurt Squire explores how leveraging young people's interest in gaming could encourage greater youth community involvement and deeper connections to civic and political life.