EDUCAUSE Review Articles; Games and Gaming; and Articles, Papers, and Reports

Virtual worlds can become an important tool in an educator’s arsenal. But using this tool requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation—indeed, the increased conversation—that virtual spaces can provide.

Learning via computer games: the very idea can seem surreal or outrageous. Yet for the past five years, a movement has been afoot to examine how digital games work as pedagogical devices. Starting with the publication in 2003 of James Paul Gee’s landmark What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, faculty, technologists, and librarians have been exploring how we can learn from and also teach within computer games. This column will survey what this movement has discovered.

With the widespread public interest in games as learning tools, DGBL proponents now need to explain why games are engaging and effective and how those principals can be leveraged to best integrate games into the learning process.

The author discusses recent IT progress at universities, including the use of gaming and other multimedia resources.

Focusing on "tomorrow," the Evolving Technologies Committee looked at five technologies and trends—wireless, portals, outsourcing, gaming, and student collaboration tools—and dreamed about what may come as the new evolve into the even newer.

To learn more about videogames in academe, the author spoke with five leading-edge thinkers in the field: James Paul Gee, J. C. Herz, Randy Hinrichs, Marc Prensky, and Ben Sawyer.