Teaching with video games

Abstract

This chapter presents perspectives on learning with, in, and about video games. Learning with games involves how they present teachers and students with new affordances in a classroom context. Learning in games means how games, by affording students vicarious firsthand experiences, can be regarded as digital field trips, simulations, or role-playing experiences. Learning about video games involves regarding them as cultural artifacts worthy of study on their own terms. The chapter argues that for video games to be regarded as educational, gameplay alone is not sufficient. Instead, they should be viewed in relation to the subject in which they are to be used, how game content and curricular content correlate and overlap, and the video game knowledge and skills of both teacher and students. For video games to be useful for teaching and learning, they must be positioned in relation to the subject matter by the teacher.