This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

WEEK # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction and overview of course

"Computer Game A Mash-Up of Crayons, Physics." All Things Considered, January 9, 2009.

Buy at Amazon Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Second Edition: Revised and Updated Edition. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ISBN: 9781403984531.

Buy at Amazon Kirriemuir, John, and Angela McFarlane. "Report 8: Literature Review in Games and Learning." Futurelab Series, 2003. ISBN: 9780954469566. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)
2-3 Combining games and education. Edu-tainment?

Bohannon, John. "Flunking Spore." Science 322, no. 5901 (2008): 531.

Sanford, Richard, Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer, and Tim Rudd. "Teaching with Games: Using Commercial Off-the-Shelf Computer Games in Formal Education." Futurelab Series, 2006. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.3MB)

"'Spore': Does Evolution Really Happen Like That?" Talk of the Nation, September 12, 2008.

Squire, Kurt. "Replaying History: Learning World History through Playing Civilization III."
4 Research on games and learning No readings
5 Video games--> board games

"Constructivism (learning theory)." Wikipedia.

Dodge, Bernie. "First Steps in Board Game Design." (2003). From the class Exploratory Learning Through Educational Simulation & Games, Fall 2008. San Diego State University.

Dodge, Bernie, and Karl Richter. "Educational Board Game Design Part One: Advantages, Limitations, Types and Structures." From the class Exploratory Learning Through Educational Simulation & Games, Fall 2008. San Diego State University.

Dougiamas, Martin. "A Journey into Constructivism." (1998).

Gagnon, Jr., George W., and Michelle Collay. "Constructivist Learning Design."

Kirschner, Paul A., John Sweller, and Richard E. Clark. "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching." Educational Psychologist 41, no. 2 (2006): 75-86. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)
6-7 Learning from games

Buy at Amazon Bogost, Ian, Anna Everett, James Paul Gee, Mizuko Ito, Barry Joseph, Laurie McCarthy, Jane McGonigal, Cory Ondrejka, Amit Pitaru, Tom Satwicz, Kurt Squire, Reed Stevens, and S. Craig Watkins. The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Edited by Katie Salen. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780262693646.
8 Board games

Federation of American Scientists. "Harnessing the Power of Video Games for Learning." Summit on Educational Games, 2006. (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 1.3MB)

Papert, Seymour. "Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning." Game Developer Magazine (1998): 88.
9-10 Simulation and game design-prototyping and constructionism

Klopfer, Eric, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen. "Moving Learning Games Forward: Obstacles, Opportunities, and Openness." The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009). (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF - 7.2MB)

Starr, Paul. "Seductions of Sim: Policy as a Simulation Game." The American Prospect 17 (1994): 19-29.

Tsang, Calum. "Constructivist Learning Using Simulation and Programming Environments." MIE2002H Readings in Industrial Engineering 1 (May 5, 2004). (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)
11 The case for mobile games

Buy at Amazon Klopfer, Eric. Augmented Learning: Research and Design of Mobile Education Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780262113151.
12 Thinking about users

Programme on Learner Use of Media (PLUM) Open University, UK and Technology Enhanced Language Learning, University of Hull. "Evaluation Methods and Procedures for Studying Learners' Use of Media."

Soloway, Elliot, Shari L. Jackson, Jonathan Klein, Chris Quintana, James Reed, Jeff Spitulnik, Steven J. Stratford, Scott Studer, Susanne Jul, Jim Eng, and Nancy Scala. "Learning Theory in Practice: Case Studies of Learner-Centered Design." Paper presented at Common Ground: Conference on Human Factors in Computing, Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 13-18, 1996.
13 Design and guests No readings
14 Final project presentations No readings