Thanks, Judi, for the link! This is the perfect site for someone like me who is interested in ways to incorporate gaming into learning. I have Marc Prensky’s book Game-Based Digital Learning on my shelf so it has just moved up in the priority list.

I poked around a few games and will blog about them later, but for now am most happy with the Game Design Advisor, a set of tools for game designers to follow. While the site still needs work (the theory section is just a skeleton), the rubric for types of learning and possible game styles is a helpful starting point along with the distinction between game design and learning design:

“Game design involves keeping players engaged and having fun over an extended time span. Learning (or instructional) design involves creating strategies to ensure certain things get learned. The art — not trivial — is to blend the two without ‘sucking the fun out.’”

I also found the three general rules for creating good games to be interesting, particularly as we think about how we can provide “authentic” learning experiences for our students in the often very inauthentic world of the classroom. According to the games site, there are three basic principles of game design: good games involve rules, goals that players care about, and a good struggle to reach the goals. What if we substitute “games” for learning: good learning should have some kinds of parameters, but it should also be something students care about and provide them a challenge. Finishing a worksheet doesn’t seem to be a “good struggle.”

Since the fundamental goal of my class for pre-service teachers is to help them actually integrate technology in their classrooms, that will be the challenge, the thing they do in the end. Throughout the game, they will learn about different types of technologies and then, in the end, use them to create a learning experience for their students.