Games in education

The use of games, and more recently digital and video games, in education, learning and teaching is a long-active, and steadily growing, research domain. While there is still no well-defined field of “game studies”, ongoing research has crossed several established academic subject areas including information science, psychology, education, economics, and other disciplines within the social sciences and humanities.

Games stuff This domain has resulted in tens of thousands of papers, articles, PhD theses, books and book chapters which have examined particular games, attributes or facets of learning in significant detail.

There is also a growing body of examples of digital (and non-digital) game uses in education, within and outwith formal and assessed learning, which generates data and material for research and analysis.

Since 2000, I have researched and produced materials concerning games in education, including literature reviews, reports, activity summaries, presentations, articles, book chapters and papers.

Work

I offer the following services to clients:

  • Providing a scholarly research-based literature review for your ‘games in learning’ project or service.
  • Reviewing and synthesising contemporary research on digital games in education, learning and teaching.
  • Surveying a sector of education e.g. schools in a particular country, for examples of digital game use in curriculum and non-curriculum learning.
  • Reporting on what, and where, academic games research is currently happening.
  • Assessing the suitability of video game hardware and software for learning within curriculum-centric environments.
  • Reporting on learning models and theories which may underpin the use of digital game in education.
  • Describing the subject-based potential of digital games in curriculum-oriented learning.
  • Comparing digital games to other technologies when used in learning situations.
  • Researching the motivations for learning and for playing digital games, and how these compare, contrast, complement and influence each other.
  • Curriculum mapping: reviewing contemporary frameworks and mechanisms for determining if a digital game is relevant and appropriate for a specific curriculum.