Update on educational video games, March 2010

Thanks to Natasha Boskic for this

John Rice (2010). New 3D Learning Book by Karl Kapp. Educational Games Research: Research and discussion concerning instructional video games. February 8, 2010.

If you are interested in using 3D environment for teaching and learning, you may take a look at a book recommended by Rice, Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration, by Karl Kapp.

http://edugamesresearch.com/blog/2010/02/07/new-3d-learning-book-by-karl-kapp/

Ann Zimmerman (2010). I Spy… a Market for Kids. The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2010.

As children are spending more and more time in front of their computer and less playing with their toys, the toy company Wild Planet Entertainment Inc. thought about combining the two. They put on the market a new toy car, The Spy Video Trakr, which is designed to help kids with a spying mission. The innovation is in allowing kids to go online and program their cars to do other things beside what the car originally came with.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704820904575055150496196056.html?KEYWORDS=I+spy+a+market+for+kids

Juul, J. (2010) Demotivation by External Rewards, The Ludologist, February 25

Why do we play games and how we stay motivated? Jasper Juul talks about the impact of failure on player’s interest in trying harder or giving up in his article “Fear of failing: The many meanings of difficulty in video games” (2008) in The video game theory reader 2 (M. J. P. Wolf, & B. Perron (Eds.), pp. 237-252).  He continues his discussion in a blog posting about external awards and what they do to us, as a response to Schell’s talk at DICE.

http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist/?p=925

A new issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is out: Volume 2, Number 4: Virtual Economies, Virtual Goods and Service Delivery in Virtual Worlds. All articles are freely available on their site. And if you are wondering, yes, Costronova has his contribution “On Money and Magic”

http://jvwresearch.org/index.php?_cms=1266812877

Catchment Detox is a new online game that teaches how to successfully “manage a river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy”. Managing waterways is an issue for many countries. Teachers can use it for learning, but also anyone else who is interested or concerned in this environmental issue.

http://catchmentdetox.net.au/

A book, Beyond Fun: Serious Games and Media was published in 2009 by ETC Press that supports open access. Therefore, this valuable resource on using serious games for learning is not only available for purchase, but also for free in PDF and other formats.

http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/7063

Richard Bartle (2010). Studying Game Studies Terra Nova. March 2, 2010.

Creating a new discipline or defining its area of study always provokes a lot of discussion. It takes time for a new field to “settle” among other well-established disciplines. Bartle raises a question on what determines what should be studied in Game Studies and what it means in terms of academic publishing.

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2010/03/studying-game-studies.html

See also: Further news on games, More news on educational games – and conferences, News on educational games, and Books and articles on games, simulations and virtual worlds – or just type’ games’ in the search box for many more.