Games and Gaming and E-Learning

'Emerging technologies for learning' aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.

This presentation will detail the intellectual practices that constitute gameplay in virtual worlds (for example, collaborative problem solving, informal scientific reasoning, computational literacy, and digital media literacy) and the way these coalesce into a form of cosmopolitanism found in the least likely of places, in context of pop culture.

The growing use of games in learning may signal a new pedagogical approach to educating the millennial generation. We'll examine the theory behind the effectiveness of games; what the past can teach us about if, how, and when to implement digital game-based learning; and what this will mean for schools.

Virtual Learning Environments in 3D We've passed through Web 1.0, entering the architecture of participation. Wikis and other read/write Web 2.0 capabilities provide a collective voice and opportunities for collaboration. They remain, however, fundamentally textual. Emerging now is the Web with shape and form--the 3D virtual world (VW). As education becomes global, will immersive 3D VWs learning spaces provide a persistent new home campus? Discuss.

A survey substantiates some ideas about online learning and refutes others.

Virtual simulations, role-playing in games, discussion boards, and shared spaces are among the growing kinds of options educators are using to foster student learning. Aside from the efficiency of delivery and students' generally positive response to technology-based instruction, how can we learn about the efficacy of teaching and learning through technology?