TWITCHSPEED.COM Digital Game-Based Learning

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What evidence can I cite that it works?

There is research from a number of sources, with more in progress. Perhaps the strongest quantitative evidence comes from The Lightspan Partnership, a group that has been providing game-based learning as a supplement to the K-8 curriculum for a number of years (see Chapter 14: Evaluating Effectiveness). In studies conducted in hundreds of school districts, the standardized test scores of students in those districts using the program were an average of 25 percent higher in reading and 40 percent higher in math. This is clearly a result of more practice out of school ("they effectively get an extra day a week" says Lightspan president John Kernan), but the games provide the motivation that makes the proactive happen. Other evidence comes from games designed to help kids with reading anfd medical problems (See Chapter 14.) In every case, the fact that the games motivate the user to spend more time with the material is the deciding factor.

What is the state-of-the-art in Digital Game-Based Learning?

Among the most effective Digital Game-Based Learning projects to date are the Military's Joint Force Employment game, PricewaterhouseCoopers' In$ider , Visual Purple's work for the FBI and other government agencies (Angel Five), Imparta's Strategy Co-Pilot, Transmedia's Objection! series, Monte Cristo's consumer games, and and Games2train's The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy. Some of the work of Ninth House Networks is also in this class. All of these are described in some detail in the book. Each takes a somewhat different approach to the integration of the learning content and the game environment, but all are interesting, and at the cutting edge of Digital Game-Based Learning circa 2001.

In the non-business world, one should examine Learning Technologies Interactive's Qin, Broderbund's The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, and the math game Green Globs and Graphing Equations, among others.

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