Online learning from online games

Bring out your toys, it’s time to learn
It is time adult learners discovered the joy of playing video games, or rather explored screen-based games as a learning environment. Screen-based games in the context of this blog cover games played on computers and all other electronic devises with a screen and controller. Shaffer, Squire, Halverson and Gee (2004) argue that video games are not just toys or a route for computer literacy. It also allows learners to immerse in rich virtual worlds and assume the powerful identities that inhabit them. A Deus Ex player, for instance, can experience life as a government special agent who uses state-sponsored violence to fight terrorism. In Sims Online, players learn to run political systems complete with the power to overhaul the police force and judicial system.

Making it real
Such environments make games powerful contexts for learning, developing social practices and situated understanding, contend Shaffer et al. (2004), concepts in situated learning theory. Situated learning emphasises learning in an authentic environment that parallels real-world situations. Learners engage in context, culture, activities and social interactions related to the authentic learning activity.

Group learning is intense
Multiplayer online games create robust game playing communities that bring players together competitively and cooperatively, into the virtual world of the game, and the social community of game players, note Shaffer et al. (2004). Barton & Tusting (2005) define communities of practice as a theory of learning where new technologies provide ways for learning in groups who are distributed by distance. In the game Civilization, for example, whose objective is to build an empire, players share game expertise, post news feeds, participate in discussion forums, trade screenshots, exchange game files and even run their own university to develop complex game skills. Lave & Wenger (1991) believe that virtual worlds integrate knowing and doing. Games bring together "ways of knowing, ways of doing, ways of being, and ways of caring: the situated understandings, effective social practices, powerful identities, and shared values that make someone an expert" (Shaffer et al.2004, p.7).