Games+in+virtual+worlds

Games in virtual worlds
Quests

Games in Second Life

Gamification references
Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Joey J. Lee, Teachers College Columbia University, NY Jessica Hammer, Teachers College Columbia University, NY Lee, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Technology and Education. Hammer is a Mellon Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. Abstract Today's schools face major problems around student motivation and engagement. Gamification, or the incorporation of game elements into non-game settings, provides an opportunity to help schools solve these difficult problems. However, if gamification is to be of use to schools, we must better understand what gamification is, how it functions, and why it might be useful. This article addresses all three questions – what, how, and why bother? – while exploring both the potential benefits and pitfalls of gamification.

Transformational Play: Using Games to Position Person, Content, and Context Sasha A. Barab, Melissa Gresalfi, and Adam Ingram-Goble Videogames are a powerful medium that curriculum designers can use to create narratively rich worlds for achieving educational goals..In these worlds, youth can become scientists, doctors, writers, and mathematicians who critically engage complex disciplinary content to transform a virtual world. Toward illuminating this potential, the authors advance the theory of transformational play. Such play involves taking on the role of a protagonist who must employ conceptual understandings to transform a problem-based fictional context and transform the player as well. The authors first survey the theory and then ground their discussion in two units that, as part of their design-based research methodology, have simultaneously given rise to and been informed by their theory of transformational play. They close with a discussion of research and design challenges.