%0 Report %1 citeulike:485772 %A Kirriemuir, John %A Mcfarlane, Angela %D 2004 %K futurelab games haifa-games-course learning literaturereview mathgamespatterns postdocapplication review %T Literature Review in Games and Learning %U http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/literature-reviews/Literature-Review378 %X REPORT 8: Literature Review in Games and Learning A Report for NESTA Futurelab John Kirriemuir, Ceangal Angela McFarlane, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol FOREWORD Computer games are today an important part of most children’s leisure lives and increasingly an important part of our culture as a whole. We often, as adults, watch in amazement as children dedicate hours to acting as football coaches, designers of empires, controllers of robots, wizards and emperors. In the past, computer games have been dismissed as a distraction from more ‘worthy’ activities, such as homework or playing outside. Today, however, researchers, teachers and designers of learning resources are beginning to ask how this powerful new medium might be used to support children’s learning. Rather than shutting the door of the school against the computer game, there is now increasing interest in asking whether computer games might be offering a powerful new resource to support learning in the information age. This review is intended as a timely introduction to current thinking about the role of computer games in supporting children’s learning inside and out of school. It highlights the key areas of research in the field, in particular the increasing interest in pleasurable learning, learning through doing and learning through collaboration, that games seem to offer. At the same time, the review takes a measured tone in acknowledging some of the obstacles and challenges to using games within our current education system and within our current models of learning. It goes on to propose some ways in which designers, researchers and educational policy makers might draw on the growing body of research in the field to create learning resources and environments that go beyond a sugar-coating of ‘fun’ to the full engagement that computer games seem to offer so many children today. We are keen to receive feedback on the NESTA Futurelab reports and welcome comments at research@nestafuturelab.org

@techreport{citeulike:485772, abstract = {REPORT 8: Literature Review in Games and Learning A Report for NESTA Futurelab John Kirriemuir, Ceangal Angela McFarlane, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol FOREWORD Computer games are today an important part of most children’s leisure lives and increasingly an important part of our culture as a whole. We often, as adults, watch in amazement as children dedicate hours to acting as football coaches, designers of empires, controllers of robots, wizards and emperors. In the past, computer games have been dismissed as a distraction from more ‘worthy’ activities, such as homework or playing outside. Today, however, researchers, teachers and designers of learning resources are beginning to ask how this powerful new medium might be used to support children’s learning. Rather than shutting the door of the school against the computer game, there is now increasing interest in asking whether computer games might be offering a powerful new resource to support learning in the information age. This review is intended as a timely introduction to current thinking about the role of computer games in supporting children’s learning inside and out of school. It highlights the key areas of research in the field, in particular the increasing interest in pleasurable learning, learning through doing and learning through collaboration, that games seem to offer. At the same time, the review takes a measured tone in acknowledging some of the obstacles and challenges to using games within our current education system and within our current models of learning. It goes on to propose some ways in which designers, researchers and educational policy makers might draw on the growing body of research in the field to create learning resources and environments that go beyond a sugar-coating of ‘fun’ to the full engagement that computer games seem to offer so many children today. We are keen to receive feedback on the NESTA Futurelab reports and welcome comments at research@nestafuturelab.org}, added-at = {2010-09-13T16:25:18.000+0200}, author = {Kirriemuir, John and Mcfarlane, Angela}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2c9daeb0a6158c88a5254b243bb65dcfd/yish}, institution = {NESTA Futurelab}, interhash = {87cc6fa9bc96a11eea9dfd5764357f22}, intrahash = {c9daeb0a6158c88a5254b243bb65dcfd}, keywords = {futurelab games haifa-games-course learning literaturereview mathgamespatterns postdocapplication review}, timestamp = {2010-09-14T13:00:40.000+0200}, title = {Literature Review in Games and Learning}, url = {http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/literature-reviews/Literature-Review378}, year = 2004 }