Toward Understanding the Potential of Games for Learning: Learning Theory, Game Design Characteristics, and Situating Video Games in Classrooms

Researchers have argued that an effort should be made to raise teachers' and parents' awareness of the potentially positive educational benefits of playing video games (e.g., see Baek, 2008). One part of this effort should be to increase understanding of how video games can be situated within teachers' existing goals and knowledge of learning and instruction. However, relatively little research on game-based learning addresses teachers (Ketelhut & Schifter, 2011), and for many a gap remains between the apparent enthusiasm of researchers and policy makers relative to the potential of educational games and the attendant practicalities of selecting and implementing video games in classroom settings. This article begins to bridge this gap by providing research-based areas of awareness and a discussion of factors that can facilitate understanding related to choosing and using video games. To this end, we show how educational games can be conceptualized from different theoretical perspectives on learning and discuss a number of essential design issues that educators should take into account when considering a video game for educational use.