ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some core issues, building on insights from the learning sciences that influence whether or not digital games-based learning (DGBL) is used successfully in classrooms. In order to provide a context, the chapter begins with an overview of digital games and the characteristics that make them candidate learning technologies. The first approach to DGBL that will briefly be reviewed involves the repurposing for the classroom of digital games that have been designed as entertainment. However, although each of the examples has reported notable successes, the use of commercial-off-the-shelf games in the classroom is far from straightforward. Other DGBL has been designed specifically for use in classrooms, the most common of which usually aim to encourage the structured practice of previously learned educational content. Despite all of the research, advocacy and hype over 35 years, DGBL remains relatively uncommon in classrooms – and, for some, using digital games to support formal learning remains controversial.
