Key-players, Gurus, and Experts

The Division of Continual Learning’s (DCL) Online Development Group at University of North Carolina Greensboro

Led by Dr. Robert M. Brown, the DCL's production staff, for years, has been developing interactive games for online courses and in the fall of 2006, launched UNC's first online microenomic interactive game, Econ 201 (Econ 201, 2006). It is in its third semester of being offered and according to Dr. Brown in a recent email I received, they "had about 170 students in the second offering, and feedback was good." According to Dr. Brown's email, they are currently looking into developing a second one once the gaming grants the applying for are approved. Although Econ 201 is fairly new, the buzz about it has been generating around several conferences. An innovative team with creative ideas. For more information on the Econ 201 project, visit, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=41156

Dr. Rod Riegle at Illinois State University

Dr. Riegle is a Professor in the College of Education and has written 4 books and 60 articles on the subject of gaming in education. He has also spoken at over 60 national and international conferences on the subject as well as serving as a consultant for those wanting to implement gaming in their courses or institutions. His company, Voortrek Enterprises, has assisted over 50 institutions (school districts, colleges and universities, organization and agencies) with such projects as Instructional Website Design and Analysis, Online Asynchronous Instruction, On-site Workshops, Keynote, Speeches and Consulting. His website can be found at http://people.coe.ilstu.edu/rpriegle.

Marc Prensky: MarcPrensky.com and Games2Train.com

According to his website, "Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor in the critical areas of education and learning. Marc is the founder of Games2train, an e-learning company whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Nortel and Nokia. Marc’s professional focus has been on reinventing the learning process, combining the motivation of video games and other highly engaging activities with the driest content of education and business. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between games and learning. His innovative combination of educational tools and game technology – including the world's first fast-action videogame-based corporate training tool – is being accepted throughout schools, government and corporate America. (Prensky, 2002)."

Dr. James Paul Gee at University of Wisconsin-Madison

Currently the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James Paul Gee has written several books that focus on the combination of video games and learning. His book titles include: What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003), Situated Language and Learning (2004), and Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul (2005). (Jim Gee.) For more information on James Paul Gee, visit GLS: Games+Learning+Society at http://gameslearningsociety.org/people_geej.php.

GLS: Games + Learning + Society

According to their site, "The Games, Learning, and Society group is a collection of academic researchers, interactive media (or game) developers, and government and industry leaders who investigate how this medium operates, how it can be used to transform how we learn, and what this means for society. They seek to understand what cognitive work goes into playing Zelda, World of Warcraft, or Civilization, how these design features might be leveraged to improve learning via the design of learning systems, and how organizations such as schools will need to respond. (About GLS: Games + Learning + Society)."

The Education Arcade

As stated on their site, "The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. TEA’s research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players. Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural, and educational potentials of videogames by initiating new game development projects, coordinating interdisciplinary research efforts, and informing public conversations about the broader and sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education. Education Arcade projects have touched on mathematics, science, history, literacy, and language learning, and have been tailored to a wide range of ages. They have been designed for personal computers, handheld devices and on-line delivery (The Education Arcade, 2005)."

Historical Background of Gaming 

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Relevance to education

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Glossary of Terms

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Start-up Costs

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Key-players, gurus, experts

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Sample Lesson Plans

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Tutorial

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Sources 

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