This title analyses the variety of play implemented within educational games and simulations and gives detailed examples of cutting-edge application in a wide range of disciplines. The popularity of entertainment gaming over the last decades has more recently led to the use of games for non-entertainment purposes, such as training and business support. The emergence of the serious games movement has capitalized on this interest in leisure gaming and helped to spread applications from the home into schools, colleges, universities and out into professional training and continuing professional development. The movement raises many significant issues and challenges for us. How can gaming and simulation technologies be used to engage learners? How can they be used to motivate and accelerate learning? What are their main strengths for learning? The contributors explore these, and many other questions, to help the reader to understand the paradigm shift from conventional learning environments to learning in games and simulations.

Author Biography

Paul Maharg is Professor of Law at the Glasgow Graduate School, University of Strathclyde UK. Henry Jenkins is Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program and Full Professor of Literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Sara de Freitas is Professor of Virtual Environments and Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute, University of Coventry, UK.