Where is the game research?

I just got this great email, and thought I would share my answer here. In short, the researcher is looking for data about games in education at the primary and middle-school levels.

I understand you need data regarding how, when, where, why and who is using games in American Education - especially around primary and secondary school.

I am not aware of any large scale studies which have investigated this. I know of many small schools who are using games in an informal, non-rigorous way, however empirical data may be difficult to come by.

May I suggest you take a look at the following sites:

http://silversprite.blogspot.com/
http://davidmcdivitt.wordpress.com/
http://edtechlife.com/
http://www3.essdack.org/socialstudies/videogames.htm
http://www.marcprensky.com/
http://mrball.blogspot.com/
http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/
http://www.boora.ca/blog/

...and of course…

I’ve included some research sites, but it’s slim!

In my opinion, mainstream adoption of games in the classroom is very far away. You are seeing all the classic signs of a nascent movement, one which I hope grows into mainstream adoption by our public school system.

I believe once the current generation of older teachers have retired, and more technically fluent teachers come into the profession (Kuhn, anyone?), we will see a more emboldened use of technology, which will surely include games as effective teaching tools.

There is a tremendous of interest in the role of games and learning, but I think there are very basic types of questions which haven’t been answered - in fact it was only recently that Salen and Zimmerman released an utterly magnificent book entitled “Rules of Play” that gives us a vocabulary to talk about games, play, and culture. Even asking a simple question like “What is an educational game?” can bring a heated exchange of opinions.

So I encourage your research path, and I would be more than happy to answer any specific questions, but as for now, and please forgive my use of idioms…

This pond doesn’t have a lot of fish.

On 26 September 2006, Tom Hoffman inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

The use of games in K-12 classrooms is entirely dependent on the emergence of a system for writing open source games.  I imagine this will have to mostly be grant funded.  The economic models for distributing proprietary games don’t work, and beyond that, you ought not build curricula around closed games that don’t allow teachers and students to study and critique how they work.

On 26 September 2006, Bill MacKenty inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Hey Tom!

I’m a COTS fan, so your ideas about open source titles are very interesting!

I’ve have limited success with open source titles, as they tend to be a bit more difficult to run than their commercial counterparts. I’ve also noticed open source stuff doesn’t have as high a production value as commercial games.

It’s actually a very interesting point you bring up, as I am very interested in open source in education.  I just haven’t really dug into the open-source side of games to much.  Hmmm. Maybe I should see what’s out there.

Thank you for your comment!

On 26 September 2006, Raj Boora inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Thanks for including me on your list Bill.

The Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com) is a good lay source to take a look at what influence gaming is having on society as a whole and not just in Education - something that they write about often.  If you have time, check it out.

On 26 September 2006, Tom Hoffman inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

We don’t really have the open source games we would need yet.  But if the various academics, researchers, foundations, etc., interested in the subject would start working together to create an open source ecosystem for games, it would be a much more highly leveraged investment than paying for commercial licenses.