Two White Papers Released

THE EDUCATION ARCADE releases two white papers to guide the development and dissemination of educational games (and other technologies): Moving Learning Games Forward and Using the Technology of Today in the Classroom Today. These papers are part of TEA’s ongoing mission to establish games as important learning tools, crucial to the successful development of 21st century students of all ages.

The broader of the two papers, Moving Learning Games Forward takes a look at the gaming landscape, both learning games and commercial games, and makes recommendations to a broad range of stakeholders on reinforcing and expanding the growing interest in learning games. Authored by TEA’s Director, Eric Klopfer, its Creative Director, Scot Osterweil, and the New School’s Katie Salen, the paper makes the case that, “games can engage players in learning that is specifically applicable to ‘schooling’,” and, “there are means by which teachers can leverage the learning in such games without disrupting the worlds of either play or school.” In making this case, the paper examines the contemporary states of play, of games, and of schools while also looking to the past for avoidable mistakes. Finally, in looking to the future, the paper makes design recommendations that will move learning games forward to the 21st century.

The second paper, Using the Technology of Today in the Classroom Today, is specifically targeted to classroom teachers. This paper, researched by Jennifer Groff with assistance from Jason Haas, provides classroom teachers with compelling reasons to incorporate new technologies like games, simulations, and social networking into their classroom and strategies to overcome potential barriers. The authors introduce specific examples of these technologies being used to successfully enhance classroom learning, and they use case studies with specific teachers to illustrate some best practices in classroom learning with technology. The paper also introduces the i5 framework, which provides specific strategies for overcoming the many potential problems that come with introducing new and complicated tools into schools.