Video Games and Learning
Constance Steinkuehler and Kurt Squire
Videogames aren’t just fun, they can be powerful vehicles for learning as well. In this course, we discuss research on the kinds of thinking and learning that goes into videogames and gaming culture, benefits and drawbacks of digital gameplay, tensions between youth culture and traditional education, and new developments intended to bridge that growing divide.
About the Course
Videogames are one of the fastest trending topics in media, education, and technology. Research across fields as disparate as science, literacy, history, visual processing, curriculum, and computer science suggests that videogames aren’t just fun – they can actually be good for your mind as well. In this course, we will discuss current research on the kinds of thinking and learning that goes into videogames and gaming culture. We’ll investigate the intellectual side of digital gameplay, covering topics that range from perception and attention in Left 4 Dead 2 to the development of historical understanding in Civilization to collaborative learning in massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. Throughout the course, we examine the inherent tensions between contemporary youth culture and traditional education and new developments in games for learning that promise to help bridge that growing divide.
